


Mindreader

by totally_legit_banana



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Gay, Gay Male Character, Humor, Insecure Louis, M/M, Mind Reading, Mistletoe, Mutual Pining, No Smut, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Pining Harry, Pining Louis, Secret Admirer, Secret Crush, Sexual Tension, Teenage One Direction, Valentine's Day, larry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-03-13 16:09:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 35,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13574115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/totally_legit_banana/pseuds/totally_legit_banana
Summary: Off the prompt, "one day in class you decide to scream something in your head to catch mind readers. As you do, you see your crush flinch."Louis Tomlinson, your average closeted high schooler, has been crushing on a certain Harry Styles for the past three years. He's not stupid, he knows Harry's out of his league, but one day something happens that throws that whole mindset into question. Harry and Louis start to become best friends, Niall's the chillest dude ever, and Eleanor is somehow simultaneously the best and most useless advice giver Louis' ever been friends with.Read if you like the writing style of percy jackson and also painfully oblivious (read: borderline stupid) Louis*Louis and Niall speak Italian in this story





	1. relevations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis finds out he and Harry can communicate telepathically and they use the opportunity to get to know eachother.

Louis Tomlinson is not your typical kind of guy. He has what some might call ‘a wild imagination’. In reality, he simply likes to question things others might find rather unimportant, as he is doing right now. At some point during his monday morning maths lesson he had had the glorious idea to check if there were any mind readers in his class, as one does when one is bored. Looking around the room, his eyes fall upon Harry Styles, the jock of his class, who is fiddling with his pencil at his desk. 

Another thing about Louis; he isn’t, how to put it, heterosexual. No. He, in fact, has a giant raging crush on Harry, the boy to whom he is currently giving his undivided attention. This happens quite often of course, but somehow Harry has remained blissfully unaware of the attention he was constantly getting from Louis. 

Drawing his eyes away from Harry, he thinks of what he might say to someone if they could read his mind. Of course, he would ask how long they had been able to read his mind for. Thinking harder, he would probably also ask what kinds of things they had heard while reading his mind. But back to the point. Louis had made up his mind. When the teacher was done talking, he would yell out ‘hello?’ into his mind, and hope somebody would respond.

Within five minutes, the teachers droning voice had faded, replaced by the scratching of pencils as the students of 9T began to do their work. As usual, Louis wasn’t one of those people. However this time, instead of staring at Harry, he is counting down the seconds until he would yell out to the ‘mind readers’ in his class.

_ 3, 2, 1.  _

_ ‘Show time,’ _  Louis thinks. Putting his pencil on the corner of his desk and placing his head in his hands, Louis prepares himself to yell out. 

‘ _ Here goes nothing,’ _ he thinks,  ‘ _ HELLOOO??!?’ _

With a resounding smack, Harrys hands fly to his head to cover his ears. 

‘ _ Well fuck,’  _ Louis hears in his head. But this time, the voice doesn’t belong to him. He looks at Harry quizzingly, but sees him staring at the teacher, as though his life would depend on the next few words she would say. Louis crumples a little piece of paper into a ball before lobbing it in Harry’s direction, in an attempt to get his attention. The ball bounces off his jacket and he determinedly continues to stare towards the front of the room. This time, more carelessly, Louis throws his entire pencil sharpener at him. Still no response.

By now, Louis has gotten desperate, and has started to resort to more daring methods to grab Harry’s attention. His eraser, homework diary, and pencil case lay scattered around Harry like clumsily arranged headstones in a desolate graveyard. 

Finally, when he has run out of things to throw, even having considered throwing his entire school bag, he gives up. But then, suddenly, an idea crosses his mind. Yelling. In his head. Sending messages. To Harry's head.

Genius.

He mentally takes a deep breath and yells ‘ _ Harry I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME TURN AROUND!!’  _ Still no response.

‘ _ Harry IF YOU CAN HEAR ME TURN AROUND!!’  _ Unsurprisingly, there is no response.

_ ‘Harry IF YOU CAN HEAR ME HOLD UP ONE OF YOUR FINGERS!!’ _ Louis thinks, _ ‘JUST ONE LITTLE FINGER, PLEASE!!’ _

Harry turns around for the briefest of moments, and as their eyes meet, shows him the middle finger. 

Which, okay. He kind of had that one coming.

* * * 

At the end of the lesson, Louis makes his way over to Harry, bent on getting answers from him. Harry, however, seems to have a different idea, and has already left the room by the time Louis has retrieved his things from around his desk. 

Cramming his things into his bag, he follows after Harry, seeing the top of his head at the end of the hallway. 

Call him crazy, but there’s no way Harry would’ve held up his finger if he hadn’t heard Louis' thoughts. Although, maybe throwing the entire contents of his bag at him was not the right approach to the matter. Whatever. ‘ _ What’s in the past is in the past,’  _ Louis thinks to himself.

Dodging elbows, backpacks, and girls ponytails being violently flicked in his direction, Louis rushes through the crowd, trying to reach that little bit of dark hair, when he suddenly hears - 

_ ‘Damn right. Although it kind of hurt when you hurled that pencil sharpener at me.’ _

Sorry what.

‘ _ I said it kind of hurt when you hurled that pencil sharpener at me.’ _

Louis stands up on the tips of his toes to try and see whether Harry is looking at him, and- there he is, at the end of the hallway, smirking at him as he pulls his chemistry textbook out of his locker. Louis walks up to him and says, “Get out of my mind. My thoughts are private.”

Harry responds with, “I can’t help it. And besides, I’ve only been able to hear your thoughts for like, a month. Not a big deal.”

Louis gapes at him. “Not a big deal?! For a month I’ve been sharing my thoughts with someone and I haven’t known!” Then, blushing down to his throat, he asks, “what exactly have you heard?”

Harry closes his locker with a loud bang and says, “We’ll talk after school, okay? I have chemistry now.”

“I know,” Louis responds, “we have chemistry together.”

Harry stares at him blankly for a moment before finally saying, “yes. I suppose we do.”

* * *

Louis had never in his life tried so hard to concentrate on chemistry like he did today, but so many thoughts rush through his mind as he stares at the board. Questions like, ‘Does he know? Is he lying?’ and ‘What’s for lunch today?’ fade in and out of his mind as he tries to make sense of the whole situation.

By the end of the lesson, Louis has come to three different conclusions. 

One, Harry either knows about his crush on him, and has chosen to ignore it, or has somehow managed not to hear about it, despite being able to hear all of his thoughts.

Two, Harry is not lying, unless he just happened to show Louis the middle finger at the perfect moment, and then later just played along with Louis' confrontation.

And three, judging by the stampede to the door at the end of the lesson, they are either serving pancakes or chicken nuggets in the lunchroom.

  
  


Twenty minutes and way too many chicken nuggets later, Louis is on the prowl. A very slow prowl, as the overload of chicken has made him feel rather sluggish, but a prowl all the same. He spots Harry’s head over the crowd, and rushes over to him.

“Harry,” he gasps, still out of breath from all the food, “it’s the end of the day now. Can we talk?”

“Sure,” he responds, and closes his locker. “Do you want to go to your house, or should we go to mine?”

Well then. Harry has just invited him over. Louis. To his house. He will be in his room, talking to Harry. At his house. What an interesting development....… He will have to play this off cool.

“Yeah,” he clears his throat, “sounds nate.”

Fuck.

Harry looks at him curiously for a moment before asking, “Who’s Nate?”

Louis sighs. “I was trying to say nice but then I decided to say great.” He just about wants to sink into the floor by now.

Harry looks at him with an indescribable expression before grinning and saying, “yeah. Sounds nate.”

***

Less than an hour later Louis finds himself sitting in Harry’s room, flicking through a clutter of loose papers on his desk while Harry is in the bathroom, when he comes across a little note with the initials, ‘H.T,’ written on it, with hearts drawn around the letters.

Huh.

Louis wouldn’t never pinned Harry to be the type to do such cheesy things as write a crushes initials on paper, even adding hearts. He vaguely wonders who Harry is crushing on, but he pushes the thought to the back of his mind as he hears the toilet flush from the other room, and hastily shoves the note back under the papers, turning around as Harry walks in.

“What happened?” He asks suspiciously, noticing how red Louis' face is.

“I saw your note. Who’s H.T?” Louis questions.

“Um. Nobody,” Harry stammers, “just someone I’ve kind of got my eye on at the moment.”

Louis blushes. “You can tell me who,” he says quietly.

“Sorry,” Harry says, shaking his head and looking away. “I'd rather not. It's just- it's weird.”

“Alrighty,” Louis drawls, knowing he won't get an answer anytime soon. “Can we talk about the mind reading thing now? How long have you been able to hear my thoughts for? What have you heard?”

Harry is silent for a moment. “The thing with hearing your thoughts started like a month ago. I don't…..know what started it. I mean…. I have my guesses what caused it, but I don't know what day it started.”

Louis nods, taking it in. “Okay… And uh, wha- what have you heard, exactly?” He tries desperately to look nonchalant, but already feels warmth spreading to his cheeks, giving him away.

Harry shrugs. “Just small things. Like what you think of the teacher, or what you're going to eat for dinner, things like that.”

“and?-”

“And I know you like boys,” Harry adds. “Which I'm fine with, by the way, I just want to know who! And it's like, I know you like someone, but every time you think about him, I get cut off! I can't explain it. I just hear this annoying buzzing. And it usually lasts like twenty minutes or so and then I can hear your thoughts again…. You think about chicken a lot, by the way. I don't think it's healthy.”

Louis laughs a bit, relieved at what he's heard. “Yes I’m working on the chicken thing. But are you sure you don't know? Not even a guess?”

Harry shakes his head. “I wish,” he says, “but the most I know is that he’s in our maths class. I constantly hear that stupid buzzing from you in maths, so I'll assume you're thinking about him. What's he like? Can you tell me anything?”

Louis thinks for a moment. “Tell you what. I'll say some things about who I like, if you do the same.”

Harry nods slowly. “Okay… I can roll with that… You start though.” He walks to the other side of his room and throws himself on his unmade bed, twisting strategically to avoid lying on the heap of laundry in the middle of the blanket. He looks up at Louis expectantly.

Louis swallows thickly before starting. “Well, he has brown hair for starters. He is in my maths class. He is taller than me-”

“-nearly everyone is-”

“-and he is as straight as an arrow.” Louis chooses to ignore the height remark, having grown used to comments like that by now. “Tell me about your crush now. What's she like?”

Harry props himself in on his elbows, facing Louis once more as he starts to talk. “Well, they're extremely cute. Which I just realized is vague as fuck but yes, cute. I've never really paid attention to how many classes we share but they are in our grade. I don't actually know too much about them because I've only had this crush for a month, but I do know that they're bilingual, because I've heard them thi- say some things that weren't in english. So yeah. And that's all I’m telling you today.”

Louis notices Harry’s odd choice of pronoun but doesn't mention it. He sits on the hard, uncomfortable desk chair and thinks for a moment, but not a single name comes up to match Harry's description. Cute he can understand, yes. There are many people who he supposes would constitute as ‘cute’ in Harry’s books. But bilingual? Seeing as they go to an international school, that gets him nowhere.

Suddenly, Harry is standing up, pacing around the room with a panicked look in his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Louis questions, eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

“It’s nothing,” Harry retorts, running his hands through his hair. “It’s just- have you been able to hear anything from my mind? Anything at all?”

Louis doesn’t have to think too hard. “No. I mean, I heard the things you thought in school earlier today. But nothing else. Otherwise I would’ve known about the situation too!!”

Harry sighs. “Right. I just- I think I know why I can hear you thinking. And I thought it might be the same  for you. But I suppose not.”

 

Now Louis is really confused. “I’m sorry, what? That made, like, no sense.” He chuckles lightheartedly.

 

“It’s nothing,” Harry snaps. His change in demeanor is very apparent and Louis' getting more confused by the second. “I’m sorry. I, uh. I have soccer in a bit. You can stay here until I leave, if you want.”

 

Louis slowly nods. “Thanks for offering, but I think I’m just going to go home now.” As much as he doesn’t want to, he has a shit ton of english homework to do and needs to leave.

 

Harry shrugs. “Suit yourself. I guess we’ll see each other at school tomorrow. Double chemistry!” He winks.

 

Louis hurriedly says goodbye and leaves, trying to hide the blush quickly taking over his face. 

 

***

 

That night, Louis is sitting at his desk, actually trying to do homework for once, when he hears a thought that is not his own cross his mind.

 

He can only assume it’s Harry’s voice reverberating through his head, asking for answers to the english homework. After reluctantly giving them to him, Louis gets ready for bed, already packing his backpack that night. He brushes his teeth, puts on his pyjamas, and is already in bed at 10pm, which is a new record for him.

 

Later that night, when he is about to fall asleep, he hears Harry’s voice in his mind again

  
  


Normally he would be ecstatic to have a late night conversation with Harry, but right now all he wants to do is sleep. Harry seems to have a different idea however, deciding that an extremely detailed account of his soccer practice is  _ exactly  _ what Louis needs. He drones on and on, telling him about all the drills and stretches his coach made the team do. After about 10 minutes of this, Louis decides he has had enough. He yells at Harry.

 

“Harry IF YOU DON’T SHUT UP I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL MURDER YOU I’M TRYING TO SLEEP!!!” He tries to make it sound as scary as possible, thinking of the roughest, deepest voice he knows. What he fails to realize, however, is that hearing threats in your mind is not that scary. At all. Harry continues to talk.

 

He yells (thinks?) two more times before Harry finally takes notice of him. He hears Harry laugh in his head. “Something got your panties in a bunch?” He says with an innocent voice. 

 

“You know exactly what’s wrong. I am trying to sleep, dammit! Shut the hell up!!” Louis retorts. He groans, covering his head with a pillow, in an attempt to block out Harry’s voice. It doesn’t work. He continues to talk, this time telling him something about his older sister’s tendency to leave her laundry in front of his door, and how she leaves dirty dishes in the sink all the time for him to clean up. 

 

Louis is at a crossroads. He really, really wants to keep listening, but at the same time he really,  _ really  _ wants to tell Harry to shut up and let him got to sleep. After some hardcore decision making, he decides upon the former.

 

He doesn’t get any sleep that night. But neither does Harry. So it’s worth it, kind of.

 

***

 

The next day, Louis is like a zombie on his feet, with very noticeable bags under his eyes. Harry, however, is as bright and perky as always. Probably because he constantly stays up until the sun rises. Louis, however, is a fervent sleep lover, and will not be able to function properly if he has not gotten at least 7 hours of sleep. Which he has not, in fact, gotten.

 

He is just starting to wonder whether staying up so late was really worth it when Harry walks up to him and starts talking.

 

“Hey,” he says. A very lengthy conversation starter. Harry must be feeling extremely talkative today.

 

“Hey,” Louis replies. It would seem he is also in the mood for a long, hearty conversation.

 

“Sooo,” Harry starts, thinking of something to say. “Wanna go for food later? We can grab a slice after school. I know a good place.”

 

Louis nods, agreeing to the….date? No, it’s not a date. He is platonically hanging out with his bro-pal. Right. “I don’t have any money though!” He blurts suddenly, realizing, you guessed it, that he doesn’t have any money.

 

“It’s cool,” Harry says, “I’ll pay.”

 

Louis grins. “I guess I’ll meet you after school then!”

 

Harry nods. “It’s a date!” he says, winking, and saunters off.

 

Which, okay.

 

***

 

After seven long, grueling hours of school, it is finally time for Louis' ‘bro-pal hangout’ with Harry. Needless to say, he’s excited. He walks out of the school building, immediately seeing Harry, who is standing by the bike racks. Harry looks around and his eyes fall upon Louis, who is already walking over to him. He pulls his phone out of his back pocket and takes a quick picture of him, before putting it away and walking up to him.

 

“Hey!” Louis laughs. “Why did you take a picture of me?”

 

Harry grins. “Because you look cute right now.”

 

And there goes Louis' ability to breath.

 

Harry looks at him, confused. “You okay? You look pale.”

 

Louis grimaces. “Paler than usual? Unlikely.” 

 

Harry grins. “Shall we start walking then? I would like to beat the crowd of 11th graders who go to the pizza place every day.” 

 

Louis nods. “Okay,” he says, shouldering his backpack and falling into step with Harry, who has already started walking.

  
  


Ten minutes later, a very excited Harry and a very out-of-breath Louis arrive at the pizza parlor. 

 

Harry turns to him. “What do you want? They have hot dogs in case you don’t like pizza.”

 

Louis smiles. “It’s fine,” he says, “I like penis!”

 

Shit.

 

“Pizza…. I- I meant pizza,” he stutters. This is a new low point in Louis' life.

 

Harry, however, doesn’t hear him, as he is nearly bowled over on the floor in fits of laughter. This fit lasts three long, uncomfortable minutes before he finally stands up again.

 

By now he has attracted the attention of nearly every single person in the room, so all eyes are on him as he wipes actual tears from his eyes and says, “what do you  _ really  _ want? I’m afraid penis isn’t on the menu.”

 

There are quite a few confused chuckles around the room as Louis groans. Harry will never let him forget this.

 

“I will have one slice of pepperoni  _ pizza _ ,” he articulates slowly, careful not to make the same mistake again.

 

Harry is still laughing as he orders himself a lemonade and a hotdog. He chooses not to order pizza because, “he doesn’t like penis.”

 

Well, Louis already knew that.

  
  


They sit outside to eat their meal, finding an unused table over by the stairs.

 

Harry, still laughing, sits down first, leaving Louis hovering awkwardly close by, unsure whether to sit or not.

 

“Well don’t just stand there!” he says, gesturing to the table, “come sit down!!”

 

Louis hesitates for a moment before Harry adds, “seriously, it’s kind of creeping me out.”

 

So he sits.

  
  


They talk for a while, both munching on their respective meals as they do. Harry talks about his older sister again, while Louis mainly focuses on eating. Due to this, Louis is done eating long before Harry has even taken his third bite.

 

Harry takes notice of this and says, “you’re already finished? You can eat my hotdog if you want!”

 

Louis shakes his head. “I’m trying to cut down on the food. Especially since I practically inhaled two plates of chicken nuggets at lunch earlier today.”

 

Harry shrugs. “I mean, if you don’t mind watching me eat my food…”

 

Louis definitely does not mind. In fact, he is quite happy to have an excuse to stare at Harry for an extended period of time.

 

Plus, Harry eating is * **cough** *  _ kind of hot _ .

 

But then he opens his mouth to talk again, while still in the process of chewing on his hotdog. Which is not so hot.

 

“Ew, gross. I just saw, like, all of your food.” Louis gags.

 

Harry flashes him a grin and keeps eating.

 

***

 

When Harry has finished his food, they decide to go for a walk to burn the calories. More specifically, they go for a walk to the ice cream store.

 

Harry gets a scoop of chocolate with sprinkles, and Louis opts for…. The exact same thing, hoping it will be a conversation starter.

 

Surprisingly, it is.

 

“Hey! I thought I was the only one who liked chocolate with rainbow sprinkles!” Harry exclaims.

 

Louis grins. “Yeah, it’s my favorite type!”

 

Actually, chocolate is one of Louis' least favorite flavors. But Harry doesn’t need to know that.

 

“Glad to see we have some similarities than,” Harry says, “I may as well like the person whose mind I am reading.”

 

Louis giggles.

 

Harry looks at him inquisitively. “Did you just… giggle?”

 

Louis’ face reddens. “I think…. I think I did,” he whispers.

 

Harry chuckles. “Well I think it’s adorable when you laugh like that,” he says, making Louis turn redder. By now he has fully accepted that Harry will eventually be the death of him.

  
  


The two hang around the ice cream shop for another hour before Harry stands up and declares that he has a soccer training session to get to. He pulls on his jacket and before Louis knows it, leans in to give him a hug. It lasts all of five seconds before Harry is walking off in the other direction, but to Louis it feels like much longer. 

 

***

 

T he next day at school things are different between the two. The hours spent together had changed something between them, and Louis no longer felt awkward around Harry, no longer felt like he had to impress him. 

 

Louis felt like he had gained a friend.

 

Harry, on the other hand, showed no alteration in his attitude to Louis.

 

Louis decides this is because Harry had thought of him as a friend from the very start. 

 

However, in the rush of it all, he’d completely forgotten why they’d even started hanging out.

 

The mind-reading thing.

 

Right.

 

He’ll have to be careful about that.

  
  


Not even an hour later he uses this exact mind-reading thing to call out to Harry during a particularly boring italian lesson. 

 

He doesn't understand why they make him suffer through three periods of Italian grammar a week, when he already speaks the language! He would much rather move over to the AP French class, as French seems like a really interesting language to learn.

 

And also Harry is in AP French.

 

But that's irrelevant.

 

Now back to the point.

  
  


Similar to the first time, Louis prepares himself before sending messages to Harry. He props his folder up on his desk to make is seem as though he’s reading, and carefully arranges his pencils and paper so he can quickly get back to work, if needed. Then, he talks to Harry.

 

_ ‘Wassuuuup,’  _ he thinks, completely aware of how stupid this is.

 

Surprisingly, Harry answers rather quickly. ‘ _ Nothing much,’  _ he thinks back, ‘ _ just a really boring french class.’ _

 

‘ _ At least you’re not stuck learning a language you already know!’  _ Louis moans.

 

‘ _ Oh wow how horrible,’ _ Harry replies sarcastically. ‘ _ Imagine actually understanding what’s going on! That must be awful!’ _

 

Louis laughs, forgetting that he and Harry are not actually in the same room. His entire italian class turns around and looks at him, including the teacher, who even stops the lesson to ask if he is feeling okay. 

 

There is a very awkward silence in the room for a moment before Louis nods and the class progresses.

 

‘ _ Well this is just… great.’  _ He groans. ‘ _ My entire class thinks I’m deranged.’ _

 

‘ _ How so?’  _ Harry queries.

 

‘ _ Well I kind of started laughing to myself in the middle of a lecture.’  _

 

_ ‘Right.’ _

 

Their conversation meanders on in this pleasant and well bred way for a while longer before the bell rings, signalling the end of the period. Louis joins the throng of students pushing to get through the door, wanting to talk to Harry before their next class. What feels like a million years later, he’s finally made it out into the hall and is moving towards Harry, having spotted him over by the water fountain. He walks up to him.

 

“Hey!” Louis taps Harry on the shoulder.

 

Harry, in turn, jumps about a foot in the air. 

 

“Jesus christ you scared the shit out of me!” he says, out of breath. Suddenly, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a little piece of paper. He hands it to Louis.

 

“My number,” he says, winking.

 

Louis is in shock. A true state of shock. Upon this very crumpled up piece of paper stand seven numbers, seven beautiful digits, that will allow him to text and call Harry at will. Which he is now realizing is pointless, as they can talk whenever they want anyways, but still. It’s a very symbolic symbol for the start of an amazing friendship with the boy he has been creepily crushing on for over a year now. 

 

Harry breaks his train of thought by saying, “see you in history, nate.”

 

Louis groans. “Please. Let me forget about that.”

 

“Never,” Harry says, poking him in the stomach before walking away. 

 

Well that’s….great.


	2. Niall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis gets to know Niall better after immidiately hitting it off with him. Niall tells Louis of an upcoming Valentine's day project. Then Louis and Harry hang out.

When Louis enters the history classroom, it’s to be meet with a giant sign that reads ‘HISTORY PROJECT -due next monday.’

 

He walks over to his seat, where he finds a boy he has never met before sitting at his desk.

 

“Hi!” the boy says, looking up at him. “My name is Niall.”

 

***

 

The teacher walks in then, telling the class to sit down before he pulls out his briefcase and places it on his desk. Louis hurriedly sits down next to Niall and watches as the teacher pulls a piece of paper from a drawer in his desk and begins to speak.

 

“Alright listen up today I’m gonna put y’all into groups of two for this history project. But before we get down to business, we have a new student in school. Why don’t you come on up here and introduce yourself?”

 

Niall slowly stands up and walks to the front of the class, throwing apprehensive glances in the direction of the teacher. When he reaches the blackboard he turns, facing the class and clearing his throat. 

 

“My name is Niall Horan. I just moved here from France, but before you ask, I don’t actually speak french. Uhh, I play guitar and soccer. Except for that, I’m a pretty boring person I guess.” He shrugs his shoulders and moves towards his and Louis' desk.

 

The teacher then continues the lesson, telling them about their assignment.

 

“Basically what y’all are doing is a debate on our topics from the past few weeks, as a revision. This is going to be your grade on this unit, in place of a test. You will be paired together with the person with whom you’re sharing a desk. It’s due today next week. So Thursday, in case some of you don’t know the date.”

 

Louis sees Harry from across the room, grinning at one of the jocks from his soccer team. He instantly feels jealous of Harry’s friend as he leans in to whisper something, making both of them laugh. But then the teacher breaks his thoughts, continuing on with his description of their project.

 

“You already know whom you’ll be working with, so I will now give your teams topics and give you your opponents. Okay, Harry and Zayn, you will be doing the positive aspects of appeasing Hitler in the second world war, working against Louis and Niall, who will be doing the negative aspects.”

 

Louis doesn’t hear anything else as Niall leans over and whispers, “I didn’t do this in my french school. I don’t really have any clue as to what’s going on.”

 

Louis smiles. “I’ll explain it to you at some point, okay?”

 

Niall smiles back and nods.

 

***

 

When the bell rings a little over half an hour later, Louis has already told Niall everything he needs to know for their project, having whispered it to him during their ‘silent study time’. They head to lunch together, stopping only quickly at Louis' locker to replace his history textbook with his maths binder. 

 

Then they enter the lunchroom, immediately greeted by a waft of warm air from the kitchens.

 

“Oh shit,” Louis exclaims. “it’s waffles.” After making that extremely fascinating statement, he runs to the lunch line, faster than he ever would in sports class. Niall is right in tow, and they both wait, deliriously happy, for the lunch ladies to drop the food onto their lunch trays.

 

What feels like an eternity later, while in reality only a few minutes, Louis and Niall both walk to the tables, clutching their waffle trays like a lifeline. They set them down on a table not too far from where Harry is sitting with his popular friends and begin to eat.

 

“So,” Louis starts, “tell me about yourself.”

 

Niall quickly swallows his bite of waffle and replies. “Well, I have an older brother who’s off in college, doing god knows what. I sing. I do soccer. I speak italian.”

 

Louis grins. “No kidding! So do I!!”

 

They both laugh and from that point onward, their conversation is in Italian.

 

They talk about their favorite breeds of dogs, how many times they burp every day, and have just moved on to the enthralling topic of burritos when Harry barges his way into Louis' mind.

 

‘ _ Yo.’ _ Harry says. ‘ _ I don’t speak italian. So it’s rather unsettling to hear it in my mind. Could you please…?’ _

 

_ ‘Sorry,’  _ Louis thinks. He focuses his attention back on Niall, continuing their conversation in english.

 

Niall looks confused. “Why’d you switch?”

 

Louis grimances. “Sorry, it’s just…. A thing I have with Harry. It’s really hard to explain.”

 

Niall furrows his eyebrows further but lights up at the mention of Harry. “On the topic of Harry,” he says, “you have a crush on him, don’t you?”

 

Louis gapes at him. “Wha- No. Never! That’s. That’s weird!”

 

Niall raises an eyebrow. “Mhm. You sure as hell don’t act like it… I’m just gonna wait here until you admit it.” He sits back and crosses his arms, eyes boring into Louis' as he waits for an answer.

 

Louis groans. “Fine, I admit it.”

 

Niall smiles in triumph as Louis continues. “I can’t believe you made me confess with literally the dumbest tactic in the world. This is stupid.”

 

Niall chuckles. “Well,” he adds, “it’s worked for years now! So, tell me about Harry. What’s he like? What are you like because of him?”

 

Louis feels like he’s in an interrogation. Aware that Harry can probably hear everything but his name, he warily starts talking. “Well,” he says, “He’s a dick and I fucking hate him.”

 

Niall nods solemnly. “He sounds like a real catch.”

 

Louis ignores the comment and continues. “I don’t even know why I like him. Okay I’m gonna backtrack a bit obviously I know why. He’s hot, his eyes and his smile are gorgeous, he’s funny, he’s smart, oh my god did I mention his eyes? He’s fucking perfect and it annoys the shit out of me.”

 

Niall shrugs. “All valid reasons I suppose. When are you going to tell him?”

 

“Never!” he whisper-yells. “Harry is as straight as an arrow! But I’m already trying to get over him.” He leans back and shrugs.  

 

Niall smirks at him. “And how’s that been going for ya?” he challenges.

 

“Great,” Louis replies sarcastically. “I’m sure it’ll be fine, though. As long as he stays single. Jesus christ I am going to die alone, aren’t I?”

 

Niall shrugs. “Probably.”

 

Suddenly the lunch bell rings, signalling the end of the lunch period and their conversation.

 

***

 

For the next few minutes before class starts Louis wanders the halls alone walking in the direction of his next class, having recently been abandoned by his new-found friend Niall. He makes it just as the late bell is ringing and drops down on the first seat he sees, which just so happens to be at a perfect angle to stare at Harry. He plans on doing exactly this for the remainder of the lesson.

 

Awesome.

 

And stare he does, barely even noticing when the bell rings and the usual rustle of paper is replaced by the sound of chairs scraping against the floor and bags being packed. In fact, both of his legs have fallen asleep by the time he eventually decides to get up with the rest of the class.

 

Louis grabs his bag and runs out in the direction of his locker. He empties almost the entire contents of his bag into it before grabbing his history textbook. On cue, Niall walks up to him.

 

“Hey, can we work on the history project today? We can go to my house!”

 

Louis nods and realizes the situation is oddly reminiscent of the moment Harry had first invited him over. This time, however, he isn’t talking to the person he has a crush on, so it’ll be fine. Probably.

 

“Sounds good man,” he says, mentally patting himself on the back for not making an idiot of himself again. 

 

“Okay, cool, I just gotta go grab my history binder. Wait here.”

 

Louis obliges and Niall runs off around the corner. By now the rest of the students have left school for the day, so Louis is left standing awkwardly alone in the hallway, waiting for Niall. Just then, Harry turns the corner and jogs to Louis.

 

“Hey,” he says, slightly out of beath. “I have soccer in twenty minutes. Wanna hang out until then?”

 

Louis shakes his head. “Sorry, I’m going to Niall’s place to work on history.” He scratches the back of his neck awkwardly and Harry stares at him.

 

“Haven’t you only known him for like, a day?” He questions.

 

Louis shrugs, “I suppose, but he’s really nice. He’s kind of cute.” Louis adds as an afterthought. That much is true, Niall is cute. But like, Harry.

 

An indescribable expression passes over Harry’s face. “He’s not that cute. More like…...okay yeah he’s kind of cute. But only a little bit! Um anyways, I’m going to go now. Have fun with Niall, I guess.” He walks away and turns the next corner, presumably on his way to the soccer fields.

 

_ ‘That was...weird’  _ Louis starts to think, but he is interrupted by Niall’s return. 

 

“Ready to go?” Niall asks.

 

“Yep,” Louis answers. “I just had the strangest conversation ever…..” he starts, beginning to talk about the conversation as he falls into step with Niall and they leave the school together.

 

***

 

Five minutes later they reach Niall’s house. It’s a nice three story structure nestled between two trees, and they pass through a gate before Niall pulls out his keys and lets them into the house. It’s eerily silent, which Niall says is because both of his parents are out of town.

 

Louis is just finishing telling his story. “He had the strangest expression ever,” he says, waving his arms wildly to make his point. “It was so weird! He was so shifty-eyed!”

 

Niall raises an eyebrow. “Louis,” he says seriously, “Harry wants the D.”

 

Louis gags. “Eww no you’re like seven years old you shouldn’t say things like that!” 

 

Niall frowns. “No way you’re older. I’m like a foot taller than you! I’m september 10th. You?”

 

“Fuck. I’m december 24th.”

 

“Wait, your birthday is december 24th? Like christmas?” Niall pretends to shudder. “Can’t imagine that! Do you get joint christmas and birthday presents or something?”

 

“Yeah, and it sucks,” Louis says. “It’s also weird to have the majority of my relatives over on my birthday…”

 

“I can imagine!”

 

The conversation dies down as they reach Niall’s room. For the next few hours they don’t talk much as they work on their project. By seven o’clock, they’ve finished.

 

“Wanna stay for dinner?” Niall asks. “I can’t cook but we can make mac and cheese!”

 

Louis laughs. “Sure.”

 

Niall grins mischievously. “We can talk about Harry…!”

 

Louis rolls his eyes. “Okay then.”

 

They head down to the kitchen and Louis sits on one of the barstools as Niall pulls a pot out of the cupboard and grabs a box of mac and cheese. He fills the pot with water and puts it on the stove to boil.

 

“So,” he starts. “How long have you had a crush on Harry, actually?”

 

Louis doesn’t answer for a moment, worried that Harry might be able to hear what he is about to say. Remembering that Harry can’t hear things about his crush, he answers. “I dunno,” he says. “Like one and a half years? Maybe two?”

 

Niall lets out a low whistle. “Daaamn. You must really like him then.”

 

Louis nods, looking down. Suddenly he perks up and points an accusatory finger at Niall. “You! Who do you have a crush on?”

 

Niall laughs. “I have a girlfriend. So I suppose I have a crush on her.”

 

“Ooooh, juicy!” Louis exclaims. “What’s her name?”

 

“Thalia,” Niall states. “She lives in France. She’s from my old school.”

 

“Cool.”

 

“So anyways,” Niall interjects, “I’ve been thinking, and I’ve come to the conclusion that you need to confess to Harry.”

 

Louis scoffs.

 

“No, seriously,” Niall continues. “I overheard some people from the student council talking about valentine’s day. They’re doing some thing where you can drop off anonymous valentine’s to a box at the office and they’ll deliver them to the person. That would be awesome for you!”

 

Louis shakes his head. “I think we both know I’m way too chicken to do that. Even if it’s anonymous.”

 

“I can deliver it for you!”

 

“HA. No way. I’d rather watch Harry get valentines from his multiple cheerleading fangirls. I will never write him a valentine. That’s too weird.”

 

“Whatever you say…”

 

And with that they change the subject to their history project and talk about that until it’s time for Louis to leave.

 

As he’s about to go, Niall grabs his backpack and hands it to him. “At least think about the valentines thing, man.” He says

 

Louis blushes. “He’ll recognize my writing. My entire life will be over in a minute!”

 

Niall laughs. “Don’t be so dramatic! He won’t know.”

 

“See you tomorrow, Ni.” Louis interrupts. 

 

“Ni?” 

 

“Eh. It's kind of cute.” Louis shrugs.

 

“Well see you tomorrow, buddy.”

 

“Is that really the best you could come up with?”

 

“Well Louis isn't exactly the best name for making nicknames out of!” Niall argues.

 

“Some people call me Lou,” he suggests.

 

“Nah, that’s like a pet name. Not gonna say that.”

 

Louis laughs. “Suit yourself. Well, bye.” 

 

“See you tomorrow.”

 

He closes the door and makes his way down the path to the gate, putting on his headphones to listen to music.

 

***

 

He makes it home roughly ten minutes later. He throws his bag next to the front door and throws himself on the couch to watch netflix. His thoughts soon turn to the valentine's day thing. ‘ _ Should I write him a valentine?’  _ he ponders.

 

‘ _ Write whom a valentine?’  _ Harry thinks back.

 

Oh right, Louis had nearly forgotten about that. ‘ _ Nobody’  _ he thinks. ‘ _ Niall says I should write someone a valentine. Not gonna happen though’ _

 

_ ‘Why not? Maybe you’ll get together’  _  Harry replies.

 

‘ _ No way. He’s straight as hell. I don’t want to embarrass myself’ _

 

_ ‘Whatever you say, sunshine’  _ Harry sighs.

 

_ ‘I’m going to bed now’  _ Louis says. ‘ _ See you tomorrow’ _

 

_ ‘Bye’ _

  
  
  
  
  


The next day at school, Harry is acting a little... off. He hadn’t meticulously styled his hair that morning, as he usually did, and also hadn’t bothered to put his clothing on properly, which Louis was very quick to notice.

 

“Um, Harry?” Louis says, walking to where Harry was standing at his locker with a couple of his soccer teammates.  

 

“Yeah…?” Harry trails, giving him an apprehensive glance.

 

Louis coughs awkwardly. “Your, um. Your fly is open.” He is trying very hard right now to keep his gaze fixed on Harry’s eyes. He is partially successful.

 

“What? Really?” Harry’s face colors as he glances down and realizes that his his fly is, in fact, wide open. He hurriedly zips it up and ardently thanks Louis, before going back to talking with his teammates.

 

‘ _ Well then’  _ Louis thinks. There is no answer.

 

The silence from Harry’s part goes on until lunch, when he says a grand total of two words to Louis.

 

“Move over.”

 

Louis had apparently been standing in front of the salad bar Harry was trying to get to.

 

It’s all very confusing, and Louis can’t say he has the least bit idea as to why Harry’s giving him a bit of the cold shoulder. These thoughts are put aside, however, when Niall walks in.

 

“Hey!” Niall saunters up to him, with his lunch try gripped tightly in his hands. “Let’s find a table!”

 

“Sure,” Louis says nonchalantly. Niall immediately notices Louis' odd demeanor but doesn’t say anything.

 

“So,” he starts, setting down his tray on the first unoccupied table he and Louis find. “What’s the deal with you and Harry right now? He totally iced you out in chemistry earlier.”

 

Louis groans, rubbing his temples. “I don’t know,” he says earnestly. “The exact same thought has been going through my mind all day. Maybe he’s just in a bad mood.” 

 

Suddenly there is a shout of laughter from the jock table. Harry is gripping Zayn’s arm, howling with laughter as the rest of the table lets out amused chuckles. Louis feels a surge of jealousy pass through him but he passes it off as indigestion.

 

Niall raises an eyebrow. “I don’t know about you,” he says, “but I don’t think he’s in a bad mood.”

 

Louis grunts in acknowledgement of Niall’s statement. He is still looking at Harry, hoping to catch his eye. But Harry doesn’t even spare him a glance. Something is definitely off. Louis turns back to his food to take his mind off things. He and Niall keep talking, but their conversation slowly dies off as they both become consumed by their own thoughts.

 

***

 

For the rest of the day Louis is completely and utterly distracted during his lessons. He tries to pay attention, he really does. But he feels like Harry’s silence is a more pressing matter than learning about the electromagnetic spectrum. 

 

After the bell rings, he pushes his way out of the classroom and tries to find Harry. 

 

He finds him standing by the water fountain with a dazed expression, hands in his pockets and head leaning back on the wall. Which is. Hot.

 

Anyways.

 

Louis walks up to him. “Hey!” he starts, but is silenced by Harry holding up a finger to his lips.

 

“Shhh. My head hurts. Walk me home.”

 

Louis is confused, but doesn’t protest. Harry pulls his arm in the direction of the front doors and they leave the school together. 

 

“So about what I was going to say earlier-”

 

“I know.” Harry interrupts. “You want to know if I’ve been ignoring you.”

 

“How did you-”

 

“I can hear your thoughts, remember?” Harry sighs. “I’ve just been feeling a little, under the weather.” And then, so quiet it’s almost a whisper, he adds, “they don’t like me.”

 

“Who?” Louis questions, confused.

 

“The person I told you about! My crush! They have a crush on someone else. Some stupid fucking dude-bro.”

 

Louis blinks. He really doesn’t want to talk about Harry’s crush. In fact, it’s quite depressing. And also, he has absolutely no idea what a dude-bro is supposed to be. “Calm down,” he says. “I’m sure whoever she is likes you too. Maybe she’s trying to make you jealous?”

 

Harry shakes his head. “That’s not it,” he says softly. He’s pulling on the sleeves of his sweater, eyes darting around the sidewalk. Louis is about to question him further, but they turn into Harry’s driveway and he decides to stay silent for the moment as he watches Harry fumble with his keys, trying not to let anything fall out of his bag. 

 

They traipse through the door and Harry immediately drops his bag and heads to the kitchen. Louis takes his time untying his shoes, studying a framed picture of Harry that is perched on a little table next to the door. He looks about five years old in the picture, and he’s wearing a sailors hat, with an eye patch. He’s holding a popsicle stick, the remnants of which are around his mouth and ears, which Louis is pleased to notice. Harry walks back into the hallway and Louis points to the picture, grinning. Harry groans. “That was taken when I was like six when I was at some 4th of July festival. I think I threw up on some dude in a chicken costume? I don’t remember much from that day.”

 

Louis smiles. “I think the picture’s cute.”

 

Harry grins.

 

“And the ice cream around your mouth has a nice effect.”

 

Harry stops grinning.

 

***

 

They spend to rest of the afternoon lounging around on the couch, both staring at their phones, showing each other funny memes every few minutes.

 

Suddenly Harry turns off his phone and throws it on the floor. Louis glances up at him. “I’m in pain,” Harry declares, obviously not in pain. “My headache is back. Will you get me some painkillers?”

 

Louis nods slowly. “Where are they?”

 

Harry waves his hand vaguely behind him, and Louis takes that as his cue to go look for them himself. He gets up, walking past the couch and down a hallway that branches off from the room they are in. To his right, he spots a room labelled bathroom. Mission accomplished. He digs around in the medicine cabinet for a few minutes but ends up empty handed. Okay, mission not yet accomplished. He goes back into the hallway. The rest of the doors are dead ends too, and he decides to go upstairs, to where he knows Harry’s room is.

 

He goes straight to the bathroom, not wanting to awkwardly linger in his crush’s bedroom for too long. He immediately spots a small bottle labelled tylenol and grabs it. On his way out of Harry’s room, he spots a piece of crumpled paper lying on the floor upon which, like the first time, Harry has written the initials H.T.

 

Louis furrows his eyebrows in frustration. ‘ _ Who is H.T??’  _ He pockets the paper, picks up the tylenol again, and walks downstairs to where Harry is presumably still lying on the couch.

 

When he comes back into the living room, it’s to be met with the sight of Harry, who has managed to fall asleep in the five minutes Louis left him alone. Louis drops the painkillers down next to his head and plops himself down across from him with a heavy sigh.

 

***

 

Louis feels creepy. He feels really, really creepy. It’s been 13 minutes since he came back in, and Harry still hasn’t woken up. So Louis, after trying and failing to wake him up, has resorted to just watching him sleep. He knows he’s being creepy, but Harry’s hair has fallen into all the right places and he looks beautiful.

 

Suddenly Louis sneezes violently and unexpectedly, which wakes Harry up.

 

Dammit.

 

“Wha jus’ happened?” Harry says groggily, rubbing his eyes. 

 

“I sneezed,” Louis says sheepishly. 

 

“Sneezed? That sounded like a small explosion!” Harry spots the bottle of painkillers lying next to his head and grabs it. “Thanks for getting them,” he says, swallowing two of the pills.

 

“No problem.”

 

Harry clears his throat. “I actually kind of want to sleep, uhh-”

 

“Yeah I should probably leave soon anyways,” Louis says quickly. He stands up. “Sorry for explosively sneezing on you.”

 

Harry grins. “Thanks for waking me up.”

 

Louis laughs. He walks back to the front door, pulls on his shoes and jacket, and grabs his bag. “Bye!” He calls out. There is no answer. Harry had fallen asleep again. He turns around and walks through the front door, pulling it shut behind him, and is met with a gust of cold air in his face. He pulls his jacket tighter around his and starts walking home.

 

***

 

He makes it back to his house relatively safely, save his fingers, which had turned to ice about halfway through the 10 minute walk home. He grabs a pint of ice cream on his way to the living room and throws himself on the couch, turning on the TV. Finding a show he likes, he makes himself comfortable in between two giant pillows and settles in. ‘ _ One episode _ ’ he thinks.

 

Five episodes later he finally turns off the TV. He throws away the now empty pint of ice cream and makes his way upstairs, grabbing his school bag on the way up. He launches himself onto his bed and pulls out his laptop, thinking of watching more of the show. But just as he’s about to press play, he hears Harry’s distressed voice in his mind.

 

‘ _ I swear, if you watch one more episode of that stupid show I’m going to LOSE MY MIND _ !’ For once Harry actually sounds serious. ‘ _ I can hear all of the dialogue but I can’t see the screen! You know how weird that feels?? _ ’ 

 

Louis chuckles. ‘ _ Yeah but what if I don’t care? _ ’ he replies haughtily.

 

Harry groans. ‘ _ Louis, please! _ ’

 

And, wow. Harry just said his name. In, like, a super hot way. Louis has a problem.

 

‘ _ Okay, fine. I’ll stop. _ ’

 

‘ _ Thank you! _ ’ Harry stays silent for a moment before continuing. ‘ _ Hey, I gave you my number a while back and you never texted me? _ ’

 

‘ _ Dude that was like, a day ago _ ’ Louis exclaims sarcastically. ‘ _ But yeah, I forgot. I’ll do it now _ .’ He pulls his phone out of his pocket and, after a few minutes of rummaging through his backpack, finds the slip of paper Harry gave him. He saves him as Harry Styles and adds a heart emoji (don’t judge) before texting him. Harry replies almost immediately. They talk for a few minutes about nonsense like school and the show Louis was watching before until Harry says he needs to go. When Harry goes offline Louis is is left scrolling through their chat, reading it and smiling to himself like an idiot at the stupid jokes Harry had made.

 

Louis has a serious problem.


	3. Snow days and Skype calls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis calls Eleanor, his best friend who had moved away the year before, and talls her about Harry. The next day school is cancelled and Harry comes over to Louis's house. The it's the weekend and Louis calls Eleanor again to freak out about what had happened during the snow day.

Later that night he decides to call Eleanor, his friend who had moved away the year before. She answers the call almost immediately with her signature, “heeeeey boo!!” to which Louis chuckles.

 

“So,” he says, promptly cutting off her laughter. “I think I have a slight problem.”

 

“Oooh let me guess!” She starts excitedly. “Umm, you’ve decided to move away with our maths teacher to antarctica?”

 

Louis shakes his head, laughing. “That’s- that’s so far off I cannot even begin to fathom how-”

 

“Oh!” Eleanor suddenly holds up her finger, effectively silencing him. “I know! You still have a crush on Harry and you finally got the balls to talk to him and now you’re best friends. And also you’re dating.”

 

Louis raises an eyebrow, impressed. “Most of that was true, actually. I’m very proud of you.”

 

Eleanor gapes at him. “You’re serious?”

 

Louis nods.

 

She squeals. “Finally you can stop being such a creep to him!!” Louis tries to act like he feels insulted while Eleanor continues squealing, completely oblivious. “I mean, seriously. Even the science teacher called you out on it one time when we were writing the physics test!”

 

“Okay, okay. I get the point,” Louis pouts before smiling again. “I’ve even been to his house! Twice!!”

 

“Oh,” Eleanor says, pretending to wipe away tears. “My baby is growing up!”

 

It was at that moment that Louis heard Harry in his mind, thinking of what to write for an essay.

 

_ ‘Can you think quieter?’ _ Harry says irritably.  _ ‘Some of us are trying to work over here!’  _

 

_ ‘Sorry’  _ Louis replies sheepishly.  _ ‘I’m on a call with my best friend though! We haven’t talked in a while’. _ He laughs.

 

Eleanor, who had since stopped laughing, looks at him confusedly. “Why are you laughing to yourself?”

 

“Wait one second,” Louis holds up a finger to silence her the way she had silenced him.

 

_ ‘I’ll be quieter, sorry’ _ he thinks. But there is no answer.

 

“So?” Eleanor cocks an eyebrow. “Wanna tell me what that was all about?”

 

With a sigh, Louis begins to explain.

 

***

 

It is only later that night, at a time Louis should really be sleeping, when Eleanor finally starts to believe his story. He had told her in detail of that fateful math class and how Harry had reacted, although she had needed a ton of proof to be fully convinced. Louis had showed her their chat, with the sentences they had finished for each other and the holes in their conversation they hadn’t needed to fill to show that he wasn’t making anything up. He was just starting to tell her about the first time he had gone to Harry’s house when, speak of the devil, Harry came back again.

 

_ ‘I’m sorry to tell you to shut up’ _ he sighs,  _ ‘but because you’re thinking about your crush all I can hear is a constant buzzing. It’s keeping me awake.’ _

 

_ ‘Oh, sorry’ _ . Turning to Eleanor, he diffedently says,  _ “ _ I’m sorry. I need to hang up. Can I call you tomorrow?”

 

“Harry?” Eleanor asks, pointing to her head as if to ask a silent question.

 

Louis nods. Eleanor waves to him and closes her laptop, cutting off the connection and leaving Louis alone with Harry.

 

_ ‘Thank you’ _ Harry says tiredly.  _ ‘Good night.’ _

 

_ ‘Good night’ _ Louis replies softly, rolling over and falling asleep.

 

***

 

Regret. Absolute and utter regret. Due to his tiredness the night before, Louis hadn’t taken off his beanie before falling asleep, and now had a severe case of helmet hair, which wasn’t a particularly good look on him. He checks the date. Friday the 8th of December. Perfect. Only one more week of school and then the christmas holidays would finally start!

 

He runs his fingers through his hair a couple times, trying to give it some volume, but gives up after realizing he’d need to take a shower for his hair to go back to normal. Sighing, he pulls another beanie over his hair to cover his helmet head, grabs his bag and headphones, and pulls on his jacket, closing his bedroom door behind him and proceeding to walk out of his house on the way to school.

 

***

 

Fifteen minutes later he’s walking back to his house with Harry.

 

He’d arrived at school late, only to be greeted with the sight of empty hallways and Harry, leaning against the lockers. “What are you doing out here?” he called out.

 

“Shh, we have to be quiet,” Harry shushed him. As Louis came closer he continued. “School got cancelled. Didn’t you see the snow outside?”

 

“My mind was elsewhere, actually.”

 

“Oh.” Harry didn’t look surprised. “That explains why I could only hear buzzing from you.”

 

Louis blushed. He had been thinking about Harry the entire way to school. “So there’s no school? Seriously?”

 

“Yep,” Harry confirmed. “Found out five minutes ago from Zayn. Of course, by then it was a bit too late as I was already here.”

 

“Oh, that sucks.” Louis responds.

 

“Yeah I suppose it does” Swiftly changing the topic, Harry said, “Can we spend the day at your house? Maybe watch a movie?”

 

Louis was puzzled. “Wouldn’t you rather hang out with your soccer teammates? Like Zayn or someone?”

 

Harry shook his head. “They’ve decided to gatecrash a party. Not really my style. And besides, I want to get to know you better.”

 

Louis hoped he didn’t look too hopeful as he said, “Really?” 

 

“Well, I better know the person whose mind I’ve been able to read,” Harry replied simply.

 

Feeling bold, Louis grabbed Harry’s arm and pulled him in the direction of the front doors. “Let’s go then!”

 

“Sounds nate!” Harry had replied, making Louis groan.

 

And that’s how he found himself lying next to Harry on his living room couch, watching netflix. Originally Harry had sat himself on the far end of the couch, but as time passed he’d moved closer and closer to middle, to the point where he was mere inches away from touching Louis.

 

And it drove Louis crazy.

 

Being close enough that he could hear Harry’s breath next to him, and yet far away enough that he couldn’t feel him was starting to mess with his brain. Feeling daring, he moves himself closer to Harry.

 

Harry looks down to him. For one heart-stopping moment Louis was worried Harry would shove him away and leave, but then he clears his throat and asks him, “wanna cuddle?” He says it as though it were the simplest thing in the world. Which, to him, it probably is.

 

“Sure,” Louis says. He may have managed to say it normally, but on the inside he was dying. 

 

Harry moves closer to him and holds out his arms. “Well?” he says, raising his eyebrows and motioning for Louis to come closer. Louis, so nervous he was on the verge of shitting himself, leans into Harry and lets him rest his head on his shoulder. And they stay like that, Louis practically sweating with nerves and Harry seemingly unaffected, until they hear a key in the front door lock and Harry lifts his head from Louis' shoulder.

 

“Who’s that?” He asks, staring groggily into Louis' eyes.

 

“That’s probably my mom. Maybe the snow cancelled her work day too.” He lifts himself off the couch and walks towards the front door, finding his mom in the process of untying her shoes. Her briefcase lay tipped over next to the coat rack, on which Harry’s coat was hanging. Moments later she straightens up and notices the coat.

 

“Someone else here?” She asks.

 

“Yeah. School got cancelled so Harry decided to come over.”

 

“Harry?” Louis' mom raises an eyebrow. “Is he the one you-”

 

“Yes mom that’s the one.” Louis cuts her off abruptly, blushing profusely.

 

“Okay. I will be upstairs then.” She picks up her bag and walks through the living room, stopping briefly to introduce herself to Harry.

 

“That your mom?” Harry asks as he sits down.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Oh. She looks really young.”

 

“I know, everybody says that.” 

 

***

 

They spend the next few hours mindlessly lounging around, intently watching some random show Harry had picked out. Louis wasn’t paying attention though, his mind transfixed elsewhere. 

 

A.K.A Harry’s face.

 

What else is new?

 

Suddenly his phone lights up with a text from Niall.

 

“How’s your snow day? Wanna hang out?” It reads. The text had been sent over an hour ago. Whoops.

 

Louis quickly replies, explaining that he’s already hanging out with Harry. Niall responds with “suck his dick.”

 

Shuddering, Louis turns off his phone.

 

“Something wrong?” Harry asks.

 

“Nah. I’m fine.”

 

Harry shrugs and turns back to the TV.

 

“On second thought, I’m kind of hungry. Shall we make food?”

 

“Okay.”

 

Fifteen minutes and a couple stupid jokes later, Louis is standing proudly in front of two bowls of ramen. He’s about to sit down and eat when Harry asks him, “doesn’t your mom want anything?”

 

“Ah, shit.” Louis exclaims. “I’ll be right back.” He leaves Harry to his own devices and climbs the stairs to the second floor, where his mom’s room is. “Mom!”

 

“Yes?” she calls out.

 

“Do you want anything for lunch?”

 

“No, I’ve already had a sandwich. Thanks though.” 

 

“Okay.” Louis makes his way downstairs again. When he reaches the kitchen he expects to find Harry, but is rather met with the sight of an empty room. Suddenly he hears Harry in his mind.

 

‘ _ Louis will shit himself when I jump out’ _

 

Oh, so that’s where Harry went. In the process of trying to scare him the dumbass literally forgot that Louis could hear his thoughts.

 

“Harry?” Louis calls out. Obviously there is no answer. Feeling particularly lazy, Louis decides to just sit and eat his noodles and let Harry obliviously wait for Louis to come looking. 

 

This lasts five minutes before Harry comes back in with a huffed, “you are the most boring person ever.” He sits across from him and pulls the other bowl of ramen towards him. Then they sit in comfortable silence, only broken by the occasional slurp of noodles. 

 

Eventually they relocate back to the living room, where they spend another couple hours watching TV. To Louis' dismay, Harry doesn’t ask him to cuddle again. Then, as dinner time comes closer, Harry stands up, grabs his jacket, and heads out, promising to talk with Louis soon. And that’s that. Louis just spent an entire day with Harry and didn’t die. 

 

After Harry leaves he tries to keep watching the show Harry had put on, but found that he had been staring way too much at him and had no idea what was going on. So he turns off the TV and goes to bed early.

 

***

 

The next day is Saturday and Louis wakes up to his alarm clock screaming in his ear at 7am. In true idiot fashion he had forgotten to turn off his alarm and now lay awake at the ass-crack of dawn on a day where he could have slept until noon. Typical. He reaches blindly for his phone, knocking over his lamp in the process. Whatever. He’ll deal with that later. Suddenly he is struck with a genius idea, which doesn’t happen to him very often so he takes a moment to let himself sit in awe of his sheer intelligence. 

 

He could skype Eleanor and talk to her about Harry! Which, admittedly, doesn’t sound all that genius in hindsight, but it seemed an incredible idea at the time. Eleanor, having moved at the end of the last school year, was now in a different time zone and would definitely be awake at this hour. So Louis could talk to her about Harry without Harry hearing the annoying buzzing he always complained about in his head. Assuming Harry was asleep, of course.

 

After randomly smacking several items on his bedside table, Louis grabs a hold of his phone and opens his skype, calling Eleanor. After a few rings which reverberate loudly around his room she picks up, grinning.

 

“Hey boo!”

 

“Hey!!” Louis sits up a little bit straighter and pulls his covers around him, creating a cocoon of sorts for him to huddle in. “What are you doing today?”

 

“Well,” she says, reaching for something off camera. Moments later she reappears with a hairbrush, running it through her thick brown hair. “I just got up an hour ago. I literally just finished getting dressed when you called.”

 

“Have you even had breakfast yet?” 

 

“Yep!” She says, holding the wrapper of a cereal bar up to the camera as proof. “As you can see I’m eating very healthy. This only has, what, like 20 grams of sugar?” 

 

Louis grins lightheartedly. “Same. Yesterday Harry and I had like four bowls of ramen in one sitting!”

 

“Harry?” gasps Eleanor. “What? Why? How?? Tell me everything!!” She places her laptop, which she is using to skype with Louis, on her desk and moves to sit on her beanbag.

 

“Eleanor,” Louis says, laughing. “You do realise I can only see the top of your head and eyes now?”

 

“Oh, whoops.” With strenuous effort she pulls herself up from her bean bag and walks to her desk chair, swiveling the seat around and dropping into it. “Now spill!”

 

“So, yesterday was a snow day. And somehow nobody but Harry and I missed the memo!”

 

“Hmph.” Eleanor made a sound of contempt. 

 

“What?” asks Louis.

 

“You really think that was just a coincidence?”

 

“Umm… yeah?”

 

Eleanor laughs. “Did Harry have any bags with him?”

 

“Well… no.”

 

“You seem to be forgetting that I went to this school too! The school teams always have training after school on Tuesdays and Fridays.”

 

“Your point?” says Louis reproachfully.

 

“Well he obviously knew there wasn’t school that day, or else he would've had his school bag or his soccer bags with him!”

 

“Well… Maybe he put them in his locker before I came!”

 

“Louis,” Eleanor chuckles. “One of the things I remember most vividly from our school was how much fucking soccer gear Harry always carried with him. I highly doubt he would have been able to fit a bag that size in one of our school’s tiny-ass lockers.”

 

“You have a point there.”

 

“Obviously.”

 

“But how would Harry even know that I would come to school?”

 

Rolling her eyes, Eleanor groans in frustration. “You are without a doubt the dumbest person I have ever met. He can LITERALLY hear your thoughts!!”

 

“Oh.” Louis shrugs. “That actually didn’t occur to me.”

 

“Dumbass.”

 

Louis gave her a pointed glare. “But why would Harry want to hang out with me? We’ve only been friends for like, a week.”

 

“Well, I can think of one reason.”

 

“And what’s that?”

 

“Louis,” Eleanor takes a dramatic pause and smirks. “Harry has the hots for you.”

 

“What? Dude!”

 

“Don’t dude me!” Eleanor retorts. “I’m right and we both know it!”

 

“If he had a crush on me why wouldn’t I have heard him think about me??”

 

“Well he can’t hear you think about him either, remember?”

 

“Well in that case I should at least hear that weird buzzing he always complains about.”

 

“You-” Eleanor slumps down in her chair, defeated. “You actually have a point there.”

 

“I know,” Louis says.  “Although I really wish I was wrong. Harry having a crush on me would be awesome.”

 

“Yeah. Anyways, tell me what happened after you found Harry.”

 

“Right, so I walked up to him and he asked if he could come over to my house. And so then we went. And we watched netflix. And kind of cuddled?”

 

“WHAT!”

 

“Yeah- he just randomly asked me if I wanted to cuddle, and-”

 

“HE SAID THAT?”

 

“Yes! Let me finish talking!”

 

“Sorry, it’s just- HE ASKED IF YOU WANTED TO CUDDLE??”

 

“YES!! Let me continue!”

 

“Of course. It’s just. Wow.” A look of shock was etched on her face, and her mouth was hanging open as though she was waiting for someone to spoon feed her.

 

“Close your mouth, you’ll swallow bugs that way,” Louis jokes.

 

She closes her mouth with a snap.

 

“So yeah, we cuddled. But it only lasted like twenty minutes before my mom came home.” He stops talking and sighs.

 

“And then?” Eleanor prompts.

 

“Well then I went to talk to my mom and went back to living room. We didn’t cuddle again after that.”

 

“Ugh your mom is such a cockblock!”

 

“A what?”

 

“A cockblock! Typically someone who- You know what, nevermind. What happened after that?”

 

“We, uhh. We had lunch. Harry ate like seven bowls of ramen. He says, and I quote, he is a ‘growing boy who needs his calories’.”

 

“Bullshit. He just likes food.”

 

“Who doesn’t?”

 

“Good point. So what’d you do after that?”

 

Louis thinks for a moment before saying, “nothing, actually. We just watched TV for a while before he had to leave. And then I went to sleep, woke up, and called you. And now here we are.”

 

“Huh.” Eleanor pauses. “You mentioned the other day that you’ve already hung out before? What have you two done?”

 

“I went to his house on Monday, and a pizza parlour on Tuesday. And then back to his house on Thursday.”

 

Eleanor lets out a long, low whistle. “Damn. May as well just move in with Harry now. Why didn’t you hang out on Wednesday?”

 

“I was a Niall’s house, working on a history project.”

 

“Who’s Niall?” Eleanor questions.

 

“New student. He moved here from France. And get this, he also speaks italian!!”

 

“What, really?” 

 

“Yep! And it’s especially good because we can talk about Harry all we want without anyone hearing us. I mean, Harry still hears the buzzing and gets annoyed, but at least my classmates won’t understand anything!”

 

“That’s really useful. Last question, is the school still doing that valentine’s day thing they do every year? With the cards and stuff?”

 

“Oh, yeah. Niall tried to convince me to write Harry one, but that isn’t going to happen.”

 

“Why not? It’s anonymous.”

 

“I dunno. He’ll probably recognize my handwriting. And then I would have to keep it a secret that I sent him a card, and we both know I suck at keeping secrets.”

 

“That is very true, good point. So scratch the valentine’s day thing, how about-”

 

Just then Harry wakes up. He doesn’t say anything, but Louis hears him think about breakfast, which means he must have woken up during his skype call. “Eleanor,” he interrupts. “Harry just woke up. Can we talk about something else?”

 

“Sure, like what?”

 

“I dunno. When is your family visiting?”

 

“Actually, about that. My mom booked a flight for me last night. My parents are staying home while I come visit you!”

 

“What?? That’s awesome!! When are you coming?” Louis cheers.

 

“During your christmas break!! I’m coming a couple days after break starts, though. Try to hang out with Harry while I’m gone.” She winks.

 

“I was going to do that anyways, thanks.”

 

“Cool. Wait, one second.” She shut her laptop slightly and Louis could hear indistinct conversation as she walked over to her moms room. The, a few minutes later, she came back.

 

“Hey, I have to hang up, sorry. Mom wants to go to the mall. Did I tell you how my dad broke my suitcase?”

 

“Haha, what? I don’t think you have.”

 

“Well,” she says, already laughing. “He sat on it by accident and, long story short, I need a new suitcase for when I come to visit you.”

 

“What? More context, please! How does someone accidentally sit on a suitcase?”

 

Winking, Eleanor waves into the camera and shuts her laptop, cutting off the connection and leaving Louis, still huddled in his blanket cocoon, alone in his room. With a groan he drags himself out of bed and walks downstairs to grab breakfast. He checks the clock. Nearly an hour had passed since he had first started the call with Eleanor. In his mind he could hear Harry thinking about stupid things like sports and food as he prepared breakfast, but for once, didn’t feel like talking to him. So he drowned out Harry’s thoughts by focusing on something more important. 

 

Food.

 

What? He’s a growing boy who needs his food. Or whatever Harry said.

 

He spots a box of cereal on top of the fridge and has to stretch as much as he possibly can to grasp it. Using all of his 5 and a half feet of height to make himself as tall as he possibly can, he grabs a hold of the cereal box and drops it on the kitchen counter, already setting his sights on the milk in the fridge.

 

A few minutes later he’s turning on the TV, trying to find the perfect show to watch as he eats his breakfast. Finding nothing, he decides to eat in silence.

 

Ahh, Saturday mornings are the best.


	4. Horror History Debate from Hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Niall ends up having to leave for Italy on the day of the history debate, and Louis is feeling a bit of anxiety about presenting alone. But thankfully Harry is there to help him through it. Harry also invites him to a football practice, refuses to talk about his crush, and is caught drafting a love note to the mysterious H.T he's been crushing on.

The rest of the weekend passes in a blur of TV and skype calls and before he knows it, it’s monday morning again and he’s leaving the house for the ten minute walk to school.

 

On the way he listens to his spotify playlist, consisting mainly of his ‘Harry Songs,’ which was the name he had given to all the songs that made him think about Harry. Which, granted, was every song about love that had ever been written. But still. The point is that as he walks to school he’s blasting music from his headphones and, consequently, doesn’t notice Harry walking up behind him until he feels a hand clap on his shoulder, scaring the crap out of him.

 

“Hey!” Harry chirps, falling into step with Louis while simultaneously rearranging his hair.

 

Louis quickly pulls off his headphones, stopping to stow them in his backpack before catching up to Harry and panting, “hey Harry.”

 

Harry looks at him worriedly. “You sick or something?”

 

“No, why?” Louis questions.

 

“No reason,” Harry shrugs. “But you’re breathing rather hard for somebody who’s walking.”

 

‘ _It’s hard to breathe normally when talking to somebody this hot,’_ Louis thinks, before panicking and realizing that Harry could hear him.

 

There is a short pause, in which nobody speaks and Louis prays Harry won’t mention anything, before Harry breaks the silence by chuckling lightheartedly and saying, “you flatter me, Tomlinson.”

 

Louis almost breathes a sigh of relief but catches himself in time. He makes a mental note to stop doing stupid things like FORGETTING PEOPLE CAN READ HIS MIND.

 

The rest of the walk passes quickly, with Harry talking about soccer for the upteenth time and Louis nodding politely and making sounds of agreement whenever it feels necessary.

 

Suddenly Louis realizes that, like the dumbass he is, he’d left his math textbook on his desk in his hurry to get to school. “Do you have your math book with you?” he asks Harry. “I forgot mine.”

 

“Yeah I do,” Harry answers. “But, Louis, we sit on opposite sides of the classroom. We can’t exactly share a textbook”

 

“Oh, true,” Louis sighs dejectedly. But then they walk through the door of the math room and, ironically, the desks all have name tags on them, which always signals a new seating order.

 

The maths teacher walks up to them and says in her ever-cheerful voice, “thought we’d shake it up a bit! Go find your nametag and introduce yourself to your new neighbour!”

 

Louis feels his heart sink a little. It’s not that he would particularly mind sitting next to any of his classmates, but Niall isn’t in his class and there’s always a chance he’ll be seated next to one of the soccer players who, while not mean in the slightest, have the average IQ of a walnut and aren’t the best candidates to work on math with. He walks around the classroom slowly, looking for his name on one of the nametags, when he hears Harry call out his name from across the classroom. “Yo dude! Louis! We’re over here!” Trust Harry to yell in school. On que the teacher walks over to Harry to give him a lecture about silence in the workplace. He chuckles to himself and walks slowly over to their desk, feeling as though he were walking on air purely because he would now be sitting next to Harry in math for the rest of the school year.

 

Fuck yeah.

 

Finally, after weaving through rows of desks that seemed intent on stopping him from reaching Harry, he gets to the last row and pulls out his chair, setting his bag down on the floor and slumping into the seat beside his crush. He is about to say something, presumably something stupid, when the teacher calls out to the class, cutting into his thought process and directing his attention away from Harry. Which doesn’t happen very often. The teacher should be proud of herself.

 

“Today, as it’s the last week before christmas break, I thought we’d do something fun! I’ve brought some A3 paper, so how’s about we make some math posters to spruce up the room!! Sound like a plan?”

 

The class cheers, whereas Harry lets out an audible groan from next to Louis. “What's the problem?” Louis asks.

 

Harry grimaces. “I’m absolutely shit at drawing.”

 

Louis chuckles. “I’m sure that’s not true. You’re good at everything!”

 

He should learn when to stop talking.

 

“Thanks Louis. But that’s really not true. You’d be surprised how incompetent I am when it comes to anything artistic!”

 

Louis shrugs. “I still don’t believe you, but okay.”

 

***

 

Ten minutes later it has become very apparent that Harry wasn’t exaggerating in the least when he said he was shit at drawing. “What’s that?” Louis asks, leaning over. “Is that supposed to be a cactus?”

 

“No,” Harry says grumpily. “That’s supposed to be a cat.”

 

“Oh.”

 

The strange sticks which were poking out of the shapeless blob had looked like the spines of a cactus at first. However, on closer inspection, Louis realized they were actually meant to be the whiskers of the cat Harry was trying to draw.

 

Holy shit. Harry actually can’t draw to save his life.

 

Then suddenly, Louis realizes something that is completely and utterly irrelevant to the current situation.

 

Harry is left-handed.

 

Admittedly not that interesting of a fact.

 

Louis is right handed though, which means that he and Harry could hold hands during class and still be able to write just fine. They would make a cute couple, Louis decides.

 

Not that Harry would ever like him anyways, but the thought was nice. You know what’s also nice? Harry’s face, which Louis then busies himself with thinking about for a couple minutes, forgetting, yet again, that Harry had access to his mind. On que, he interrupts Louis' brief thinking session.

 

“Dude,” he says, a mild tinge of annoyance seeping into his voice. “Can you stop thinking about your stupid crush? So annoying.”

 

“Oh. Um, sure. Sorry.”

 

“It’s fine,” Harry sighs. “The buzzing is just getting annoying. Please just ask the guy out already!”

 

Louis scoffs. “Nope. Not happening.”

 

“Why though? So what if he ends up not liking you? It’ll help you get over him.”

 

“No way. Besides, I really don’t want to ruin my friendship with him.”

 

Harry looks at him quizzingly. “You’re friends with him?”

 

Oh shit. Again, Louis really needs to shut up sometimes.

 

Harry stays silent for a moment before asking softly, “Louis… It isn’t Niall, is it?”

 

“What??” Well, that isn’t the answer he was expecting. “No, it’s not Niall. Why would you even think that??”

 

“I dunno! You’re friends with him, and you’ve said he’s cute before!!”

 

“Yeah, but I don’t have a crush on him!!”

 

“Well, who do you have a crush on then??”

 

In this very moment Louis kind of wants to punch Harry in the face for being so oblivious, but he instead opts for saying, “I’m not going to tell you! Not right now at least.”

 

“Why not?? I swear I won’t judge you or anything!” Harry insists.

 

“Well, then why don’t you tell me who you have a crush on?? Initials H.T. Does that ring a bell??” Louis retorts.

 

Harry shoots him an exasperated look. “That’s different, Louis. You might actually hate me if I tell you.”

 

Louis rolls his eyes. “You’re such a dramatic little shit, Harry.”

 

“You know it, babe.” Harry winks.

 

And Louis dies a little inside. He’s about to respond when their playful banter is cut off by the teacher calling out his name. “Louis?” she says. “There is a Niall here who would like to speak to you.”

 

Louis looks at Harry, frowning. “Why would Niall be here?” He asks.

 

Harry shrugs. “Just go ask him that.”

 

So Louis stands up and walks to Niall with a confused look wiped across his face. “Why are you here, Ni?” He asks when he's made it to the doorway Niall is standing in.

 

“One of my obscure relatives that I've never spoken to is having a wedding, and apparently I have to be there.”

 

“Okay?” Louis chuckles. “You really came to my classroom just to tell me that?”

 

“Well, kinda?” Niall shakes his head. “What I mean is that you'll have to do the history debate alone, because I'll be in Italy.”

 

“What history debate?” Louis asks.

 

“Remember? The one on appeasing hitler? We’re opposing Harry and Zayn!”

 

“Shit! I have to do a debate alone??”

 

“Yeah, just a heads up.”

 

“Shit, fuck. Niall I can't do that!”

 

“Why not? You can't look Harry in the eyes without drooling?” Niall laughs.

 

“No! I mean, yes! I mean- it's not that.”

 

“What's the problem then?” Niall asks, a look of confusion written on his face.

 

“It’s- whatever. It's nothing. I'll be fine.” Louis sighs.

 

“Okay….” There is a bit of an awkward air surrounding them in the silence that follows.

 

Suddenly Louis remembers something. “Dude, Harry thinks I have a crush on you!!”

 

“You're joking,” Niall deadpans. “What an oblivious little shit.” He cranes his head around Louis to catch a glimpse of Harry. Then his head snaps back and he says, “don't look now, but Harry's looking right at you!”

 

Louis' eyes widen. “Really??” He immediately turns around to look behind him and, sure enough, Harry is looking at him with a rather strange expression. However upon their eyes meeting, he hurriedly knocks a colored pencil off the desk and bends over to pick it up. “Weird,” Louis mutters, turning back to Niall.

 

“I literally told you to not look!” Niall says, “Whatever, I’ve got to go back to my class. See you later!”

 

Then there is a distinct thump from the back of the classroom and Louis rolls his eyes. “Did Harry just bang his head on the desk?” He asks Niall with a pained expression.

 

Niall nods, amused. “Anyways, I really do have to go now. Have fun with Harry, lover boy.”

 

Louis smiles. “See you.” They hug, briefly, before Niall walks away and Louis returns to his desk at the back of the classroom, where Harry is now gingerly cradling his head.

 

“How did you manage to do that?” Louis chuckles.

 

Harry groans. “Try being as tall as me and you'll see how many things I bang my head on every day.”

 

“Oh. Yeah, I wouldn't know.”

 

Harry looks him up and down. “Obviously.”

 

“Okay, rude. I'm probably average sized, and you're just fucking giant!”

 

“Sure, just keep telling yourself that and one day you might even believe it.” He pokes Louis' nose.

 

“Ouch.”

 

“Are you okay?” Harry asks hurriedly, strangely concerned.

 

Louis gives him a pointed look. “Um, duh?”

 

“Well, I dunno. Maybe you have a really sensitive nose!”

 

Louis scoffs. “Fair enough.”

 

Then they both focus on their poster, Harry resuming his cat-hybrid drawing while Louis draws random maths symbols across the paper. The rest of the lesson passes rather uneventfully, the most interesting thing being Harry somehow managing to bang his head on the desk yet again, before Louis' picking up his bag and being ushered out of the classroom by the teacher. Harry had gone over to his soccer friends so Louis leaves the room by himself and sets on towards his locker alone.

 

He spots Niall by the drinking fountain at the end of the hallway, and so hurries when he replaces his maths folder with his chemistry binder. He’s being quite reckless and nearly vaults a textbook across the hallway, but soon enough he’s gotten what he needs and is on his way to the other end of the hallway. A flock of jocks pass him as he walks, and Harry, in the middle of entertaining them with an outrageous story about soccer, turns around and shoots him a smile. Louis blushes and smiles back shyly, awkwardly stumbling over his feet as he does so.

 

Nice, Louis. That’ll get him.

 

Thankfully, Harry had since turned away and hadn’t had the chance to see Louis trip himself up.

 

Putting Harry out of his thoughts for the time being, Louis joins up with Niall at the water fountain and they walk together to their next class, chemistry. “When are you leaving for Italy?” Louis asks Niall as they walk together.

 

“Thursday morning. So I’ll be here on wednesday to prepare with you, but I won’t be there for the actual thing.” Niall replies. And, as an afterthought, he adds, “Why did you freak out when I said you’d have to present alone?”

 

Louis looks down at his shoes. “It’s kind of stupid, really. I just get really freaked out by stuff like that. Just imagining everybody looking at me-”

 

“No, I get it. It isn’t stupid.” Niall reassures him. “Would it help you if we write out what you should say, word for word?”

 

“Yeah, actually.” Louis feels a bit sheepish for making Niall work harder just because he’s a nervous wreck, but Niall seems to understand.

 

They walk into the chemistry classroom together, parting ways as Louis heads to the back of the class and Niall to the front. Louis sits alone in chemistry, with no Niall or Harry to keep him company, so he dozes off and doesn’t pay attention for the most part of the lesson, waking up only briefly to jot down some notes on isotopes before falling back into his peaceful state of daydreaming.

  


Later that day, after chemistry, lunch, and two gruellingly boring periods of basic italian grammar, Louis has gone to his locker for the final time and is currently in the process of attempting to break free from the swarm of high-schoolers who are pushing past him through the front door. Then, somewhere off to his left, he hears Harry call out his name. Glad to have an excuse to break off from the mob of sweaty teenagers, Louis walks in the direction of his crushes voice and is met with the sight of him looking at his shoes with his hands shoved deep in his pockets and his hair as carefully styled as ever.

 

“Did you need anything?” Louis asks tentatively.

 

Harry looks into his eyes for a moment before saying, “yeah, actually. I know your not a particularly sporty guy-”

 

“-okay, rude-”

 

“-but I was wondering if you maybe want to come to my soccer practice with me this Friday? And then afterwards to my house?”

 

Louis blankly stares at him for a moment, wondering why the hell Harry is being so shy about asking him to hang out, but ignores his weird behaviour and instead says, “sure. But you’re right, I am entirely unsporty.”

 

Harry grins. There is a beat of silence, interrupted not a moment later by a call on Harry’s phone. He talks for a moment with the person on the other end referee leaving abruptly, saying that he, quote, “needed to help Zayn out of a tight situation.”

 

Whatever. Louis totally doesn’t hate Zayn right now for taking Harry away from him. Totally not. Totally. Not. What? Okay, a little bit of resentment is detectable. But whatever. Louis pulls his phone from his pocket to see a text from Eleanor.

 

‘Hey!’ It reads. ‘My flight is all booked for the first monday of christmas break, does that work for you?’

 

Louis smiles and quickly confirms that Monday works for him. He then starts typing out a long message about how Harry had invited him to his soccer practice, desperate for help.

 

Then suddenly he realizes that after the soccer practices, the guys usually shower. Which isn’t usually a problem for him, as Harry isn’t in his sports class, but this time he’ll be there. In the showers. Probably naked.

 

Scratch that- definitely naked.

 

Shit. Fuck.

 

Louis is going to die. To put it lightly. Yay?

 

‘ _Why must Harry be so hot??’_ He complains to himself. This time, the boy in question doesn’t complain about any buzzing in his mind, which either meant that he had learned to drown out Louis' thoughts or that he had somehow fallen asleep. Either one was mildly impressive.

 

Louis returns his attention to his phone screen and the long message he had just sent Eleanor. She takes a moment to respond, and her answer is even less helpful than Louis could’ve imagined.

 

‘You do realize the soccer boys shower naked after training?’ She writes.

 

Yeah, thanks. He has realized that.

 

He quickly types out a reply. ‘What the FUCK am I supposed to do?? Harry naked is something I never imagined I would see. And I only have until Friday to mentally prepare myself!’ He waits in suspense for a reply, but Eleanor had gone offline. With an exasperated sigh he shoves his phone back into his pocket and leaves the school building.

 

***

 

Then suddenly it’s Thursday, the day of the dreaded history debate. In the previous history lesson Niall had helped Louis prepare his debate down to the smallest irrelevant detail, but he still wasn't feeling too great about talking alone in front of the entire class. Currently Niall was sat on a plane to Italy and Louis was walking with heavy footsteps to his first class of the day, chemistry. Two periods of suffrage left until history. Great. At least he had a bit of time to psyche himself up.

  


Turns out god is working against him, and the two periods of chemistry pass lightening fast.

 

Well, you know what they say; time flies when you’re in a state of crisis!

 

Or something like that.

  


Louis' heart is beating erratically as he walks into the history classroom, his shaking hands gripping on to his cue cards like a lifeline. His jeans feel too tight and too loose all at once, and he’s breathing like a dying horse as he tries to calm himself down. Harry, bless him, immediately takes notice and walks over, concerned.

 

“You okay?” He asks softly.

 

Louis nods quickly, embarrassed to let Harry see him like this.

 

But then Harry reaches his hand up to Louis' face and tilts his chin upwards towards him.

 

“Really?” He asks again.

 

Louis shakes his head. “I’m just a bit nervous, I guess. It’ll go away.”

 

“You’ll be fine,” Harry reassures him, but Louis isn’t convinced.

 

“I just get really nervous talking in front of large crowds,” he says, abashed.

 

Harry’s hands fall from Louis' face and grip onto his hands as he says, “if you get nervous, just look at me. You’re debating against me anyways, you don’t have to look at the rest of the classroom. Just me.”

 

Louis shakes his head, dubious of Harry’s idea, but decides to try it anyways.

  


Fifteen minutes later Louis is finding it surprisingly easy to do his debate with Harry’s help. He’d been talking in front of the class for five minutes now, and had survived by drowning out the rest of the classroom by focusing solely on Harry, who sent him reassuring smiles every now and again. He still mildly feels like he has to shit his pants, but the feeling is mostly overpowered by Harry’s reassurance.

 

Huh, cheesy.

 

He stumbles his way through four cue cards worth of a pre-made conclusion before his part of the debate is finally over. Now he just has to awkwardly stand in the front of the classroom as the teacher makes comments on their performance. Harry and Zayn come from their side of the classroom and Harry moves to stand next to Louis, briefly touching his wrist as he says, “did it help at all? What I said?”

 

“Yeah, surprisingly,” Louis breathes. His senses are heightened and he is hyper-aware of his and Harry’s arms brushing against each other every now and again. “It wasn’t as horrible as I thought, once I could ignore the entire class staring at me.”

 

Harry smiles, but then their pleasant moment is interrupted by the history teacher. “Are you two going to pay attention or not?? Focus!” He snaps crabbily as the class snickers.

 

And then Louis is sitting down and the horror history debate from hell, dubbed HHDH, is finally over. He’d made it through an entire ten minutes of presenting alone without throwing up. All because of Harry. Ah, shit. He’s so totally fucked with this crush.

 

Now that the debate is over, there is only one day left for Louis to prepare himself for soccer practice with Harry. Harry, who will be wearing the horrible muscle shirts the boys varsity team is always made to practice in. Those shirts are especially horrible for Louis, partially because they broadcast the wearers armpit sweat smell to the entire world, and partially because Louis has a bit weak spot for Harry’s arms.

 

What? He’s hot.

 

But now to the immediate problem. Niall, being on his way to Italy, could not be there during lunch to keep Louis company, so now Louis needs to find somebody who will, which will be hard. Being in an international school had resulted in all of his friends moving away the year before. Granted, he’d only had about three, a boy named Liam, another boy named Percy, and, of course, Eleanor. He hasn’t managed to stay in touch with Liam or Percy, which kind of sucks, but the worst part is that he had never been particularly good at making friends easily, so Niall is in essence the only person he talks to regularly since his friends had moved away.

 

Besides, well, Harry. But Harry won’t want to sit with Louis during lunch. He always sits with Zayn and the rest of his popular friends. With a sigh, Louis waits for the history lesson to end before grabbing his bag and heading off to the library. He may as well pass the time by doing something productive, like reading.

 

What he doesn’t expect to see in the library is Harry, hunched over on one of the library tables, hurriedly scribbling something on a piece of notebook paper. Assuming he’s doing homework Louis walks over and says a cheerful, “hello!”

 

Startled, Harry grabs the paper and holds it up to his chest, hiding the contents of the page from Louis. “Can I help you?”

 

“What’re you writing?” Louis asks curiously.

 

“Oh, nothing,” Harry responds curtly. However upon seeing Louis' intensely curious expression, he continues. “Do you remember H.T?” He asks.

 

Louis nods. How could he forget? H.T, the person who had made Louis' already miniscule chances of being with Harry even smaller. He had no idea who she was, but he hated her.

 

Harry pauses, studying Louis' expression before continuing. “I’m kind of drafting a note for them.”

 

“Note?” Louis questions. “What kind of note?”

 

Harry blushes lightly. “For the valentine’s day thing. I’m writing them an anonymous note.”

 

Louis frowns, his eyebrows furrowing together. “But valentine’s day is ages away. Why would you start now?”

 

Harry shrugs. “I want it to be perfect.”

 

Louis bites his lip. “Wow. You must really like H.T, whoever she is.”

 

Harry nods shyly, a blush tinting his cheeks as he looks up at Louis. “Yeah,” he whispers, “I really do.”

 

Louis is overcome with the sudden desire to find out who H.T is and punch her. How dare she take his man. Who technically isn’t his man and has only been talking to him for a couple weeks now, but still. The bitch should get her hands off Louis' property. Suddenly Louis wants to take out a sharpie and write, ‘Louis' property’ across Harry’s forehead, but thankfully he suppresses that urge. Harry would not be amused.

 

Realizing that he and Harry had been sitting in silence for an awkward few minutes now, Louis leaves him to his own devices and doesn’t turn back to look at him until he’s reached the other side of the library. The boy had gone back to writing his note, paying no attention to Louis.

 

Louis then leaves the library, spending the rest of the lunch break alone on the playground trying to psych himself up for tomorrow’s soccer practice with Harry.

 

As long as he doesn't get a boner or anything, he’ll be fine.

 

Hopefully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if you like the chapter! Also, I have little experience with anxiety, so the scene where Louis is panicking is very under-exaggerated. I know anxiety is much, much worse in real life. Also, does anybody actually know what H.T stands for? While writing it crossed my mind that it might not be as obvious as I had originally thought... Anyways, I think I've gotten a bit of a schedule now. 4,000ish words a month.


	5. Sleepover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis goes to football training with Harry and only ends up in a slight crisis. Afterwards they go to Harry's house for a sleepover and Niall somehow finds out about the H.T and quickly has guesses what it means, but won't tell Louis. Then later, Louis has another crisis surrounding the clothes he has to borrow and the mistletoe that had been hund in one of the doorframes he and Harry just so happened to walk under.

One day later Louis is finding it very hard to not get a boner during soccer. He’s half an hour into practice with the team, and Harry has already managed to make Louis flustered three times. On the plus side, school has now let out for the holidays, so there’s no more stress about homework for the next few weeks.

 

But then all thoughts about homework and christmas are driven out of Louis' mind as he sees Harry across the other side of the field doing push-ups with the rest of the team.

 

That’s- fuck. Louis should probably join them, but he’s perfectly content watching Harry.

  
  


Another fifteen minutes pass before the coach blows his whistle and calls everybody to the middle of the field.

 

He runs over and stands with the rest of the soccer team as they huddle in a circle around the coach. Harry comes up behind him and gently places a hand on Louis' lower back as he listens intently to the instructions the team is being given. 

 

“Today we’re going to take it easy during practice, as it's the last before Christmas break,” the coach starts.

 

Louis breathes a sigh of relief. He is way too out of shape to partake in a normal soccer practice. 

 

Harry, ever the sporty one, lets out a groan but doesn’t complain.

 

“Alright!” The coach claps his hands together and beckons for the team to follow him. Harry removes his hand from Louis' waist and jogs after the coach. Louis does the same. 

 

The team runs a lap around the field together, with Louis already out of breath halfway, before coming to a rest where they started and arranging themselves into a circle. Harry is on the opposite side of the circle and Louis finds himself standing next to Zayn. The coach then instructs them to do some weird stretches, which Louis finds himself doing surprisingly easily.

 

After a few moments of stretching the coach shouts, “We’re going to do a scrimmage now. Okay, Harry and Zayn, you’re team captains. Choose your team members.”

 

Harry, with Zayn in tow, walks up the where the coach is standing and turns to face the team.

 

“You wanna pick first?” he asks Zayn.

 

“Sure,” Zayn responds in his low, gravelly voice. “Uhh, Avery.”

 

The boy- Avery- walks over to Zayn and they both turn to look at Harry, who’s supposed to pick now. Louis feels his heart sink, as he knows he will be chosen last. He’s not only never played soccer before, but he’s also out of shape and none of the soccer players even know who he is or what he’s doing here.

 

But then, to Louis' surprise, Harry calls out his name. “Louis?” he says timidly, almost like it’s a question. Louis smiles softly and walks over to join Harry, who then wraps his arm around him as they stand and wait for Zayn to make his next pick. Louis tries his best to ignore Harry’s arm being wrapped around his shoulders, tucking him safely into his side. It’s hard, but he manages to focus his attention on Zayn, who then calls out, “Nick!”

 

The broad-shouldered boy to whom the name belongs muscles his way through the crowd of soccer players before standing next to Zayn. It goes on like this, Zayn and Harry taking turns choosing players for their team. Harry doesn’t retract his arm from Louis' shoulders, not that Louis is complaining.

 

And then, when the teams have been picked and there’s nobody left standing, the coach blows his whistle and sends Zayn’s team to the other side of the field.

 

“Alright!” Harry claps, as upbeat as ever. He removes his arm from around Louis' shoulders, beginning to pass out pinneys among the team. Louis grabs an ugly green one and pulls it on. It smells like four generations of athletes had worn it before trying, and failing, to wash it. He shudders.

 

Nearly the entire rest of the team has on red pinneys, except for a few people who have the color blue on. Harry, Louis is pleased to notice, is the only other boy wearing a green pinney. 

 

Then, with a quick pep talk from Harry and a few high fives from the soccer team, the game begins. 

  
  


10 minutes later Harry’s team is up by two points and Louis has learned two new things.

 

One, Harry is somehow impossibly hotter when he runs.

 

And two, Louis really, really, sucks at soccer.

 

He’d already somehow managed to narrowly miss taking a ball to the nuts and had had to duck to avoid an accidental headshot that had started out as a pass. Harry, within the first two minutes of the game, had immediately picked up on his lackluster set of skills and instructed him to stand by the goal as an extra defense. Which Louis ended up not minding at all, as he could peacefully watch Harry from the back of the field without having to do anything. Which, for someone as incredibly unfit as Louis, was amazing.

 

The game ends rather suddenly then with a sharp whistle from the coach, signalling to the team to gather together around him. After a brief information session about upcoming games, the coach announces the end of the training session, filing Louis with relief before he suddenly becomes nervous as a wave of anxiety rolls through his mind, reminding him that it’s time for the team to shower.

 

“Hey!” Harry drawls, walking over. “How’d you like soccer?”

 

“It was okay,” Louis shrugs. “Too much strenuous exercise for my liking though.”

 

Harry laughs. “You serious? That was nothing!” 

 

“Yeah, well. Add soccer to the long list of things I can’t do.” 

 

“Stop it, you’re good at a lot of things,” Harry says firmly.

 

“Like what?” Louis asks, only half joking.

 

“School,” Harry states simply.

 

“You’re kidding, right?” Louis asks. 

 

“What? No!” Harry says indignantly. “You’re so smart! Even before we were friends it annoyed the shit out of me. You’d always be getting the best grades in history, maths, eng-”

 

“Wait- you’re serious?” Louis interrupts.

 

Harry looks at him, a confused expression written across his face. “Of course? I thought you knew?”

 

Louis shakes his head, looking at the ground in disbelief. “I mean, I know I’m not an idiot, but. Do you really think I’m smart?”

 

Harry, still staring at him, starts laughing lightly. “You’re easily the smartest person I’ve ever met, Louis. It always annoyed me so much, too. You always get perfect grades in classes where honestly, half the time I don’t even know what’s going on!”

 

“Oh.” Louis lets out, not knowing what else to say.

 

“As much as I would love to stay and chat right now,” Harry says, “I’m really sweaty right now and I am in dire need of a shower.”

 

Oh, shit. Louis had somehow completely forgotten about the shower situation again. He walks into the changing room with Harry and watches as he grabs a towel and shampoo from the depths of his soccer bag. Reminding himself of what might happen if he showers with Harry, Louis comes to a sudden decision.

 

“I’m not going to shower here,” He blurts. “At least not with the team.”

 

“Why not?” Harry asks. “Are you self-conscious?” 

 

“Yes,” Louis whispers, lying through his teeth. In truth, he isn't actually all that insecure. He just doesn't want to be naked in front of the entire soccer team in case he gets a boner because of Harry. He isn't out of the closet yet, and that would be a rather awkward way to do it.

 

Harry, still looking at him, turns to him and grabs one of his hands. “There is no reason for you to be self-conscious. You're-” he stops suddenly.

 

“Yes?” Louis prompts.

 

“Nothing,” Harry says quietly, quickly letting go of him and scratching awkwardly at the back of his neck. “I'm- will you wait for me outside?”

 

“Okay.” Louis says. He wants to know why Harry is acting so weird, but he doesn't mention it. He doesn't want to accidentally direct the conversation back to his inability to shower in front of people. Specifically people named Harry Styles.

 

So he grabs his bag, somewhat creepily watching Harry’s retreating back in his peripheral vision, before leaving the locker rooms. He parks his ass on a bench about twenty feet away from the shower room and pulls out his phone, tapping his thumb absentmindedly on the wood of the bench as he waits for skype to open. Then finally it does, and he excitedly opens Eleanor’s chat.

 

‘Hey!’ He types. ‘soccer practice went okay, nothing awkward happened and I managed to get myself out of the shower situation… Excited to see you in a few days!! Now I just have to get this dreaded sleepover over with..’ He sends his message and briefly waits for a response before pocketing his phone, realizing Eleanor was probably still in school.

 

After that it’s only a few minutes before the soccer players start to slowly come out of the changing rooms. Harry is one of the last ones to come out, hair still dripping wet as he walks over to Louis. “Ready for the night of your life?” He asks, running his fingers through his tangled mop of hair.

 

Louis casts an apprehensive glance in his direction. “Keep your wet hair away from me and we’ll be fine.”

 

Harry grins devilishly. Then, without even a moment's hesitation, he flicks his head in Louis' direction, showering him in droplets of water.

 

“You dick!” Louis cries, wiping the water off his face. “You’ve made me wet!”

 

Harry casts him a suggestive look. “Damn. Doesn’t take a lot to get you going.”

 

Louis rolls his eyes and groans. “You know what I meant.”

 

Harry just winks and pulls his arm in the direction of the bike racks. “C’mon, let’s go to my house. Oh and by the way I accidently came by bike this morning so we’ll have to take it with us. Do you wanna sit on the back while I ride? It’ll be much quicker.”

 

“You must be out of your mind if you think I’m gonna-”

 

“Relax! It’ll be fun!”

 

Overcome with a sudden burst of insanity, Louis says, “Fuck it. Let’s do it.” 

 

“Awesome.”

 

And suddenly he finds himself perched precariously on the metal bars on the back of Harry’s bike, holding on for dear life as Harry tears recklessly down the evening streets. He is almost certain Harry is the worst biker he’s ever met.

 

Later on during the ride, after several near-death experiences, Louis slowly starts to realize that sitting on the back of a bike isn’t the worst thing in the world. He’s actually quite enjoying it. He’s holding on to Harry’s waist and has a perfect view of his-

 

His jacket.

 

Yes.

  
  


The metal bars he’s sitting on will surely leave awkward bruises on his thighs in the morning, but he can’t bring himself to care. So he wraps his arms a little tighter around Harry and waits for the ride to end.

  
  


When they reach their destination, Louis' left buttocks has pins and needles and he’s sure the other one is about to fall of. It was decidedly worth it though, he thinks while stepping off the back of the bike, as it had given him the opportunity to practically latch himself on to Harry without the other boy being able to complain. He grabs the soccer bag hanging from the handlebars of the bike and and walks up to the front door which Harry is doing his best to unlock. 

 

When the door finally clicks open, they step into the foyer and are met with an eery quiet as they survey the hallway in front of them. There are no signs of noise giving hint to the presence of Harry’s sister, whom he had constantly complained about in the early days of their friendship. “My sister’s sleeping at a friend’s house tonight. Sydney I think her name was,” Harry calls out into the silence, almost as if reading his mind.

 

Oh wait. Right.

 

“What’s your sisters name again?” Louis asks, in a pretense of not really caring but secretly desperate to know more about his crush’s private life. But like, in the least creepy way possible.

 

“Gemma,” Harry answers after a moment. Then, “do you want any food or something?”

 

Louis shakes his head. “I’ll just have a glass of water, thanks.” He walks aimlessly around the hallway as Harry busies himself with the tap in the kitchen. His eyes find the picture of Harry with ice cream around his mouth that he had seen the last time he was here. Smiling to himself, he joins Harry in the kitchen and happily accepts the glass of water he’s offered.

 

“So,” he says, taking a sip. “Do we have any plans tonight?”

 

Harry thinks for a moment, leaning back against the kitchen counter and looking at the ceiling. “I just figured we could chill and watch a movie. Nothing serious.”

 

“Okay,” Louis replies simply. He places the now empty glass on the counter close to the sink and goes to the front door to grab his sleepover bag he’d previously dropped along with Harry’s soccer bag. Upon returning to the kitchen he finds the other messing around on his phone, scrolling through instagram and liking random posts. 

 

“You wanna relocate to the living room now?” He says, trying to get Harry’s attention.

 

“Huh?”

 

“I said do you want to go to the living room,” Louis repeats, louder.

 

“Wha- Oh, sure.” Harry quickly pours himself a glass of water and follows Louis out of the room.

 

“So,” he continues, once they’re both sitting on the couch. “What do you want to watch?”

 

“Dunno, let’s check what there is on netflix.”

 

“Okay,” Harry replies. He picks up the remote and turns on the TV. “Let’s see... “

 

“Ooo!” Louis exclaims. “Can we watch naked?”

 

“What?” Harry asks, bewildered. “Why wouldn’t we wear clothes?”

 

“No, dumbass,” Louis retorts. “The name of the movie is naked.”

 

“Oh, thank god.” Harry types in the movie and clicks on the first option that comes up. Squinting, he reads the description. “Rob’s madly in love and about to be married.” He stops briefly to send Louis an amused look before continuing. “Unfortunately, he’s also naked, stuck in an elevator and caught in a time loop.” 

 

There is an awkward pause.

 

“What the fuck? Who came up with this??”

 

“It’s an amazing movie, I swear,” Louis reassures.

 

“You have weird taste,” the other replies, clicking to start the movie anyways.

  
  


The movie ends roughly and hour and a half later with a very content Louis and a very shocked Harry.

 

“What the heck?” He exclaims, immediately after the credits have started rolling. “That was literally the best movie ever, oh my god!”

 

“I know,” Louis says, laughing. “It’s been my favorite since it came out, it’s amazing!”

 

“Yeah, no kidding!” Harry quickly adds the movie to his watch list before turning back to Louis. “So, what shall we do know?”

 

“Dunno, I don’t really feel like watching another movie just yet.”

 

“Same.”

 

There is a beat of silence before both boys simultaneously pull out their phones and ignore the other. Well, at least Harry is ignoring Louis. Louis, on the other hand, is using his time while Harry is distracted to stare at him.

 

Subtly. 

 

Very subtly.

 

“Why are you staring at me?” Harry asks suddenly, head snapping up to throw an accusatory look at Louis.

 

Okay, not so subtly after all.

 

“What? I wasn’t staring at you! I was, ahh-” he stutters, desperately trying to think of a way out of the situation. “I, uh- I just thought we could maybe go up to your- uh, your room?” Nice save, Louis.

 

Harry narrows his eyes. “...Okay? I guess?”

 

They both stand up and straighten the pillows they had been sitting on before traipsing up to Harry’s room. 

  
  


Once in his room, Harry loudly proclaims that he has to go to the toilet and promptly shuts the door on Louis as he enters the adjoining bathroom.

 

“Have fun!” Louis calls after him.

 

There is a very audible groan.

 

Louis chuckles and pulls his phone out for the second time that afternoon and decides to text Niall, who he presumes is currently sitting in church with a feigned expression of interest as he watches two people he’s never even met exchange vows.

 

‘What’s up?’ Louis writes.

 

‘Just chilling,’ Niall writes back immediately. ‘What about you?’

 

‘I’m in Harry’s room, I’m gonna spend the night,’ Louis writes back proudly.

 

‘Seriously? That’s awesome!’ Niall writes. Then, a moment later; ‘I don’t believe you, send proof.’

 

Rolling his eyes, Louis quickly takes a photo from where he’s sitting on a beanbag in the far corner of the room. ‘There. That proof enough?’ he writes under the picture.

 

Niall doesn’t reply for a moment, but then he texts, ‘who’s H.T?’

 

‘How do you know about that?’ Louis texts back, confused. Can Niall read his mind too now? That wouldn’t be ideal.

 

‘I can see a bunch of papers on the floor with H.T written on it,’ Niall writes, reassuring Louis. ‘So who is it?’

 

‘The initials of Harry’s crush, I think. I didn’t pester him too much about it. Do you have any guess who she could be?’

 

‘Actually, I do.’

 

‘Who??’ Louis texts back hurriedly, attempting to sit up in his beanbag in shock but rather suddenly spasming like a fish out of water before falling awkwardly back into his seat.

 

Niall sends two laugh-emojis, almost as if to taunt him. ‘I think it’s rather obvious myself. Although I never would’ve pinned Harry as the type to do something like that.’

 

‘Something like what?’ Louis texts back anxiously. ‘Who is it??’

 

‘Dumbass.’

 

‘Tell me!!’

 

Niall, the little shit, doesn’t tell him, but rather texts, ‘I don’t know if I’m right. Once I’m certain I might tell you,’ before going offline.

 

In a state of crisis, Louis spams Niall with texts like like, ‘Niall, come back!!’ and, ‘please tell me! Please!!’ but it’s to no avail.

 

Suddenly Harry walks back into the room, leaving Louis with no time to wipe the panicked look off his face. “What’s wrong?” He asks hurriedly upon seeing his expression. “Are you okay??”

 

“What?” Louis blinks twice. “Oh, yeah. I’m good.”

 

Harry nods in acknowledgment, casting a glance at the clock on the watch which reads a few minutes after eleven. “It’s getting late, don’t you usually go to sleep now?”

 

Louis nods, pleasantly surprised that Harry remembers such little details about him. With great effort and no small amount of frustration, he stands up from the beanbag chair he’d been lying on and scampers downstairs to grab his overnight bag and change into his pyjamas. Upon return he passes the picture of five-year-old Harry in the hallway and smiles to himself.

 

Once he reaches Harry’s room he throws his bag to the floor and drops down beside it, rummaging through to find his change of clothes. There are sounds of running water coming from the adjoining bathroom, indicating that Harry was taking a shower. Completely unnecessarily so, as he’d already taken a shower just a few hours prior after soccer, but perhaps he had forgotten to wash his hair or something. Shaking his head, Louis digs deeper into his bag after an uncomfortably long minute of not finding his pyjamas.

 

“Harry?” he calls out upon realisation that he had actually forgotten practically everything but his toothbrush.

 

“One moment!” comes the response. Louis waits in silence, feet tapping rhythmically to a beat known only to him, before Harry walks out.

 

And, wow.

 

His towel is hanging dangerously low on his hips, water droplets still clinging to his skin as he runs a hand through his hair, shaking some of the moisture from it. Louis fixates his gaze on Harry’s eyes, successfully ignoring the distraction that are Harry’s abs five feet from his face. “I-uhh. I forgot my pyjamas,” he swallows thickly.

 

Harry doesn’t say anything, but rather walks over to his closet and tosses one of his shirts over to Louis before pulling one on himself. 

 

After getting over the initial shock of being offered one of his crush’s T-shirts to sleep in, Louis manages to choke out a weak, “I’m not going to wear one of your shirts to bed, man”

 

“Why not?” Harry asks. “They don’t smell that bad,” he adds, before taking a whiff of the shirt he has on and visibly recoiling.

 

“It’s not that,” Louis says. “You’re just much taller than me. Your shirts are too big for me.”

 

“So what if it’s a little big? Big shirts always look cuter!”

 

Louis rolls his eyes. “Not in my case.”

 

Harry frowns. “You’re stupid. Just wear the shirt.”

 

So he does. It’s rather comfortable, he decides. But there’s still something missing. “Harry?” he asks tentatively. “I still don’t have any pants.”

 

“Oh, shoot.” Harry stops mid-frown to think for a moment. “I think I have a smaller pair in the wash downstairs. Let’s go get them.”

 

Louis shrugs in response and pushes himself off the floor to follow Harry. Thankfully he hadn’t taken off his jeans just yet, otherwise he would be traipsing through the house half-naked. Although Harry’s oversized shirt would have probably covered at least the top half of his legs anyways.

 

When they reach the laundry room Harry quickly opens the dryer and pulls out a pair soft soft-looking sweatpants before tossing them in Louis' direction. He fumbles with them for a moment before they both walk out of the room. He barely makes it half a foot before he’s stopped by an arm on his shoulder, holding him back.

 

Harry, looking up to the arch of the doorway, says, “my dad hung mistletoe all throughout the house in hopes of catching my mom. I guess we got caught.” With an awkward chuckle he points to the ceiling above them.

 

And no. This cannot be happening. First the shirt, now this? Louis casts a look up at the doorway and sure enough, there is a sprig of mistletoe hanging directly above the threshold to the room. “I am not going to kiss you,” he deadpans, turning his direction back to the boy standing in front of him.

 

“It’s tradition,” Harry says, winking. “You don’t want to ignore traditions, do you?”

 

Louis groans. “How are you even okay with this? Most guys wouldn’t want me to kiss them.”

 

“Why not?”

 

“Well, because of my being gay. Most guys assume I have a crush on them just because of it, or I’ll get a crush on them if we become too close.”

 

Harry scoffs. “That’s a dumb way of thinking. I know you’ll never have a crush on me anyways, Louis, regardless of what your sexuality is.”

 

If only Harry knew how wrong he was.

 

“Still,” Louis continues, “it’ll make things awkward between us, especially because I’m gay-”

 

He’s cut off my Harry pressing a light kiss to his cheek. “There,” he says. “Do you feel awkward?”

 

“Um… No?” 

 

Harry smiles. “See? I was right again.”

 

Louis resists the urge to touch the spot on his cheek where Harry’s mouth had just been moments earlier. Honestly, what the fuck? If he’d have known what an emotional rollercoaster sleeping over would be, he would have mentally prepared himself a bit more.

 

After a few moments of hesitation he grips Harry’s sweatpants tighter to his chest and walks back upstairs, where he then goes to the bathroom to change. Walking out into the bedroom, he sees a mattress with a blanket that the other had set up while he was changing. Exhausted, he falls into bed and mutes his phone before rolling onto his side to fall asleep. Moments later the room light is turned off and he hears Harry climb into bed with a heavy sigh.

 

“Goodnight,” he calls out into the darkness.

 

“Night,” comes the reply.

 

He snuggles into Harry’s clothes and drifts off to sleep pretty quickly, worn down by the soccer training earlier and everything that had happened since. His last coherent thought before he falls asleep is how the shirt he is wearing smells like Harry’s favorite cologne, which he had grown to love the scent of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter sucks even more so than the others, I'm really sorry.  
> Anyways, shoutout to that person witht the (very) original username in the comments who kind of motivated me to finish the chapter (sorry it's shit).


	6. Eleanor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis wakes up the morning after in Harry's room. He has to get ready quickly because, as it turns out, Eleanor's flight has been pushed up and he'll be seeing his best friend a lot sooner than he'd originally anticipated.
> 
> SIDE NOTE: this is kind of a filler chapter? Nothing really happens. I've been uninspired recently and I don't want to write something important to the story if I'm not in the mood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is kind of a filler chapter. I might merge it with chapter 7 in the future, I might just leave it in all it's uselessness. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.

‘Ouch, fuck’ is Louis' first coherent thought when he wakes up the next morning, still slightly sore from the rough bike ride the night before. He reaches blindly for his phone, grabbing hold of it as soon as he feels the cold metal underneath his fingertips. After nearly blinding himself with the sudden bright light from the screen, he opens youtube and begins watching random videos that show up on his recommended list, biding his time until Harry wakes up. 

 

Sunlight streams through the narrow gaps between the curtains as Louis lies huddled under his blanket, cocooned in a bubble of peaceful serenity. Harry, still fast asleep, elicits soft snores every now and again, adding to the tranquility of the morning. The clock reads 9:37am, indicating that the two boys had gotten a little over nine hours of sleep total. Time passes slowly, with the occasional rustle of bedsheets as Louis tries to find a comfortable position to lie in.

 

Another half hour passes before Harry finally wakes up. “Hey!” Louis chirps.

 

“What time is it?” Harry asks groggily. His morning voice is decidedly sexy.

 

“Uhh, roughly 10:10,” Louis says, checking the clock for the second time that morning. Harry rubs his eyes with the palm of his hand to adjust his sight to the bright light of the sun. He throws his blanket aside and stands up, somehow already completely awake. 

 

“Get up, let’s make breakfast!” 

 

“Ugh, I’m tired.”

 

“No, you’re just lazy.”

 

“Okay true, but you don’t have to say it like that!” Louis says, disgruntled.

 

Harry lets out a breathless laugh. “Come on slowpoke.” He begins to walk out of the room slowly, waiting to be followed.

 

Louis rolls his eyes and groans. “Fine.”

  
  


Shortly after this they both end up standing awkwardly in the kitchen, staring at the array of pots and pans cluttered throughout the room. There’s a small stack of dirty plates sitting in the sink, which Harry begins to sheepishly load into the dishwasher upon seeing Louis' grossed out expression.

 

They spend the next few minutes rummaging through the mess in the kitchen, trying to find something to make breakfast with. Time passes in peaceful silence until Harry breaks it.

 

“Louis, do you ever plan on coming out?” He asks suddenly.

 

Startled, Louis replies with, “um, yeah, I guess. Why do you ask?”

 

“I was just wondering. What would you come out as?”

 

Louis narrows his eyes. “What do you mean?”

 

“Well you’ve said before that you like guys, but that could mean you’re bisexual, pansexual, het-”

 

“I’m gay,” Louis interrupts. “I’d come out as gay.”

 

“Okay,” Harry says slowly, thinking. “How did you actually know that you only like boys?”

 

Louis shrugs. “Same way you know you only like girls, I guess.”

 

Harry stays silent for a moment, seemingly on the verge of saying something. After a moment's pause he does, but it’s of no significance. He simply asks Louis whether he would like eggs or pancakes for breakfast. 

 

Pancakes, Louis decides.

 

“Oh, hey! We can make milkshakes!” Harry says after a few beats of silence, bouncing on the balls of his heels in excitement.

 

“You do that,” Louis jokes.

 

“No, I’m making pancakes. You need to.” He whips a blender out from behind his back and hands it to him. “Ice cream’s in the freezer.”

 

“Wha- What?” Louis says, utterly, for lack of a better word, flabbergasted. “Where the fuck did that blender come from?”

 

Harry just shrugs. “Always gotta have a blender on hand. You know, for times like these.”

 

Louis feels his eyes rolling back into his head. “Knowing you, you might not even be joking right now.” He watches as Harry opens the freezer, tossing a carton of ice cream at him. After fumbling with it, he sets it on the countertop along with the blender. He spots a rather large spoon and grabs it, trusting that it’ll be clean. In all honesty, Louis has absolutely no skill in cooking, and so his hopes aren’t high for the milkshakes he’s about to make.

 

He puts a couple scoops of ice cream in the blender, forgetting to count how many, before pouring an unmeasured amount of milk on top. Closing the lid, he puts the blender on the first setting and watches as the ice cream mixture starts to froth. After a good minute he hesitantly pulls off the lid and reaches for the giant spoon.

 

“Hey, Harry? Can you come and try the milkshake?”

 

“Sure.” Harry walks over and takes the spoon from him before dipping it in the milkshake.

 

After tasting it he hesitates before speaking, facial expression giving no indication as to what he was thinking.

 

“Well?” Louis asks impatiently. “What do you think?”

 

“I, uhh. It’s, uhh. I don’t know how to tell you this, man-”

 

“Well, spit it out!”

 

“It’s absolutely disgusting,” Harry says sheepishly, shaking his head a bit. “I don’t know how you could fuck up putting ice cream in a blender, but somehow you did.”

 

Louis mock gasps, batting Harry’s arm. “How rude!” He then breaks his facade and says, “I figured it’d be gross, though.”

 

“Eh,” Harry shrugs. “You can’t be good at everything.”

 

“Or anything, in my case,” Louis jokes.

 

“Stop saying that.”

 

“What? I was just joking.” Louis says. “Although it’s kind of true.”

 

“No, it’s not.” Harry sighs. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. You might not be good at cooking, or soccer, but you have other things going for you. You’re funny and, like, annoyingly intelligent, and-”

 

Louis looks at the floor while Harry keeps rambling. “Why do you always compliment me so much?” he asks suddenly.

 

Harry shrugs. “I like to compliment people. Especially you.”

 

“Oh, okay,” Louis says softly, unsure of what else to say.

 

“But I can’t compliment that milkshake,” Harry continues. “That was actually disgusting.”

 

They both chuckle before he continues, saying, “How about you leave the rest of the cooking to me? You can sit on the counter stool or whatever.”

 

Satisfied with the solution Louis sets himself down on one of the counter stools and looks up just in time to see Harry spill baking soda on himself.   
  
He tries and fails to cover up a chuckle at the sight of him then furiously batting the powder off his shirt, an extremely focused expression on his face.   
  


Harry glares at him. “What’s so funny?”   
  
Louis snorts. “You look cute when you're all concentrated. Your nose even scrunches up and everything.”   
  
Harry looks scandalized. “Shut up,” he mutters, rolling his eyes before turning back to the pancakes.

 

Louis suppresses another laugh, covering it up by opening his phone to see that Eleanor had texted him a bit over 15 minutes ago.

 

‘Hey! My flight for Monday was cancelled and so we emergency booked one for today. Excited to see you in a couple hours!!’

 

‘Awesome! I’m at Harry’s place right now, I’ll try to tidy my room up a bit when I’m home before you arrive.’ He texts back.

 

‘Cool!’ She responds immediately. ‘I’m boarding now, I’ll call you when I land.’

 

Eleanor then goes offline, leaving Louis to tell Harry of his plans. “Hey, Eleanor’s coming a couple days early. Is it alright if I leave after breakfast?”

 

“Yeah, of course. You need to try these pancakes before you leave though.”

 

“Of course.”

  
  
  


Two hours have since passed and Louis is now sitting in the middle of his room, eyeing the mess in disdain. Harry's pancakes had been rather good, although he hadn't added enough flour so they tasted a little wrong. But they were Harry's pancakes nonetheless, so Louis swallowed every last bit of the mildy gross breakfast.

 

He had then packed his stuff pretty quickly and left, stopping only to wish Harry happy holidays. Just before he left Harry had given him a hug that was just a fraction of a second too long, bordering on awkward, before Louis pulled away and made himself on his way home.

 

That was two hours ago. Presently, Louis is in a crisis. He had stupidly told Eleanor he’d try to clean his room, forgetting how messy it actually was. With a sigh, he hefts his sleepover bag onto his shoulder and drops it on his bed, figuring he should get the easy stuff out of the way first.

 

He unzips the duffel bag and pulls out his headphones and toothbrush, setting them aside before delving further and-

 

Fuck.

 

He pulls out a pair of soft sweatpants and a large shirt with a groan. He fucking stole Harry's pajamas. Whatever. He’ll just give them back at some point. He picks up his phone briefly to text Harry and tell him before putting the clothes on his pillow, because, well.

 

As long as he has them, he may as well wear them. What? It's not like he’s going to give them back unwashed.

 

Anyways. 

 

His phone lights up with a text from Eleanor, which he reads while rummaging further into his bag and pulling out his hairbrush. Setting it aside, he reads the text.

 

‘I've landed! Going through security now, can you pick me up?’

 

Louis grins, excited to be seeing his best friend again after so many months apart (nearly 4, to be exact). She had moved in the very last days of August before school started, and it was now roughly mid- December. Needless to say, Louis misses the fuck out of his best friend.

 

“MOM!” he shouts. “CAN WE GO PICK Eleanor UP?”

 

“Sure, honey!” comes the reply. “Is your room clean?”

 

“uhh,” Louis hesitates. “YEAH, IT IS.” 

 

Whatever, Eleanor is used to the mess.

 

“Okay then let's go!” his mom calls out.

 

Louis goes downstairs and pulls on his jacket as his mom makes the finishing touches on the front hallway. He laughs as she picks up a cat decoration and wipes away the dust underneath.

 

“Christ mom,” he says. “She isn’t going to check under our cat decorations.”

 

His mom bats his arm. “She’s our guest and that's what you do for your guests. It’s proper etiquette.”

 

Louis rolls his eyes, chuckling. “Sure mom.”

 

He then turns and leaves the house, followed shortly after by his mom, who chooses to ignore the comment. They pile the car and she turns the ignition on before driving towards to airport to pick Eleanor up. 

 

The ride lasts a comfortable 20 minutes before they’re pulling up into the airport parking lot. Louis' mom turns off the engine as he excitedly hops out of the car. “Come on!!” he calls, hopping from one foot to another in anticipation.

 

“Yeah, yeah,” his mom replies curtly, juggling her keys and purse as she tries to close the car door. “Give me a moment.” 

 

Louis' phone lights up with a text as he waits for his mom to get her shit together.

 

‘I’m through security now, waiting by the front entrance’

 

Louis lets out a loud squeal, which he quickly covers up with a loud cough because he is very manly, thank you very much. Grabbing his mom's arm, he begins to pull her towards the parking lot exit, stopping only briefly to crane his head around the rear of the car and make sure both doors had been properly closed. The afternoon would surely be ruined if they managed to get their car stolen.

 

Thankfully both doors have been properly shut, so Louis tightens his grip around his mother and they make their way to the airport entrance. His mom eventually peels his fingers off her with grumbles of contempt, as he had apparently been cutting off her bloodstream. He apologizes quickly before setting his gaze back towards the airport, trying to find Eleanor. 

 

He spots what he thinks is a teenage girl with light brown hair loitering by the trash cans and almost runs towards her, but then she turns around and Louis realizes that he’d just been about to run up to a middle aged man with suspiciously well groomed hair. Shaking it off, he swivels his head around, trying to catch a glimpse of his best friend. 

 

He feels a rush of disappointment when he doesn't see her and is on the verge of calling out her name when, out of nowhere, a small brown haired girl vaults herself at him and clings on, shaking with audible sobs. Never a man for emotions, Louis pats her head awkwardly until she lets go and allows him to look at her properly. 

 

“I’ve missed you so much!! You’ve grown!! How’s school?? Oh my god, we have so much to catch up on!!” Eleanor gasps, her words tumbling over each other as she hops from one foot to another. “I kind of have to pee,” she adds afterwards, subtly suggesting they get a move on home.

 

“We’ll get you to a bathroom right away princess,” Louis says politely, quoting an old inside joke of theirs from when they were kids. 

 

“Thank you, kind sir,” she replies with the same courteous tone. She subtly wipes the small amount of tears from her eyes before turning to Louis' mom. “And how have you been, Ms Tomlinson? Can’t imagine Louis' been much help around the house.”

 

His mom chuckles. “Nope, can’t say he has. But then again, was he ever?”

 

“True, true,” Eleanor drawls, grabbing hold of her suitcase from where it lay behind Louis.

 

“Hey!” he protests, indignant. “I clean my room! Mostly….”

 

“No you don’t,” his mom says in unison with Eleanor.

 

“I do to!” he protests.

 

“Nope,” comes the reply.

 

Realizing there’s no point in arguing, Louis rolls his eyes and takes Eleanor’s suitcase from her and slowly begins walking to the car, the others soon falling into step beside him.

 

“So,” Eleanor continues, “how’s life been without me? You need to tell me everything! Oh, and I've got to hear more about this Niall guy! What’s he like? Is he cute? Can I meet him?”

 

Feeling overloaded with questions Louis interrupts her mid rant. “Niall is cool. We can facetime him later today, if you want?”

 

“I’d love that!” she claps her hands together excitedly. “Oooh and you need to tell me more about Harry!! You've been getting closer recently, so you think you might date soon?”

 

“Shhh!!” Louis panics. “What if my mom hears you??” He casts a fearful glance at the woman in question, who has thankfully chosen this exact moment to search her purse for the car keys and is otherwise unaware. He hasn't come out to his mom yet, partially because he doesn't know what her reaction will be and partially because he just can't find the right moment to. He knows she won't have any negative reaction to it, but there's still an unnecessary fear keeping him tethered, an impossible thought that maybe, just maybe, it'll change things between them.

 

“Dude,” Eleanor deadpans, interrupting his anxiety-induced thought process with her monotone words of wisdom. “You're really fucking stupid.”

 

“What?” Well that wasn't quite what he was expecting. “Rude.”

 

“I mean, when has your mom ever been homophobic?” she continues. “And besides, she already uses gender neutral pronouns when talking about your future relationships.”

 

Well that’s….. True. 

 

“I think you should come out. If you do it while I’m here, I'll help you say it.”

 

“Yeah, maybe.” They let the conversation die off as they reach the car and are once more in earshot of Louis' mom. Eleanor takes her suitcase from Louis and throws it into the trunk before joining him in the back seat, resuming their conversation from way earlier. 

 

“So, when do I get to meet this lovely Niall guy?”

 

“He’s, uhh. I think he's in Italy right now, visiting family.”

 

“Oh that's a shame,” Eleanor pouts jokingly. “How did you guys become friends anyways?”

 

Louis thinks for a moment. “We were partnered up for a history project. He's really nice. I don’t know him all too well but I think we could be really good friends. He also speaks Italian, did I mention?” 

 

“That's great! Speaking of, have I mentioned my newfound Italian vocabulary?”

 

“Um, what?”

 

“Yeah! There’s this Italian guy who taught me how to say good day!!”

 

Louis smiles. “Well? Let’s hear it then!”

 

“Vaffanculo!” Eleanor proclaims proudly.

 

His mom suppresses a laugh as Louis all but gapes at her. “That's. Um. Well- hmm. Uhh.”

 

“What, did I say it wrong?” Eleanor questions.

 

“No, actually. You just, uh. Fuck you.”

 

Eleanor looks taken aback. “Sorry?”

 

“Oh, no no no. That's what you just said! Vaffanculo means fuck you, not good day. Um, how many people have you said this to?”

 

Eleanor frowns. “Nobody, thank god. I wanted to run the pronunciation by you first.”

 

“Good you did.” There is a beat of silence which Louis' mom tries to cover up by turning on the radio. “What do you want to do when we get home?” Louis asks a few moments later, over the sounds of beyoncé.

 

“Dunno,” Eleanor shrugs, ever the intelligent one. “Figured we could just talk. Maybe catch up over a tub of ice cream from the local place?”

 

“Mmm, can’t say no to that.”

  
  


The ride continues on with peaceful conversation for the next ten minutes before they're pulling back into Louis' driveway.

 

“Oh my god!” Eleanor says suddenly, after they've both gotten out of the car and are making their way to the front door. “I haven't told you about my wisdom teeth removal!”

 

Louis gapes at her. “Do I want to know?” he asks cautiously.

 

“Oh my god yes,” she snorts, already suppressing laughter. “I looked like a chipmunk for days! It was hilarious. I have some pictures if you want to see.” She pulls her phone out of her back pocket and fumbles with it for a moment before waving it in Louis' face. 

 

“Woah.” Louis is met with the sight of Eleanor, eyes bloodshot and rolling back into her head, with cheeks the size of oranges. 

 

“This was taken just after I woke up from the anesthesia,” she explains. “My eyes went back to normal pretty quickly, but the swelling didn't go down for days.”

 

Louis laughs as he hands back the phone. “C’mon,” he says. “Let's bring your stuff upstairs and get you situated before we go for ice cream.”

 

“Okay!” she chirps. “Let's invite Harry! I know you want to.” She winks.

 

“Fuck off.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the long wait! I'm moving, so I haven't been able to write as much recently. The majority of the packing is done now though, so it's all smooth sailing from here. 
> 
> See you next chapter!


	7. Ice Cream Shop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eleanor and Louis meet up at the ice cream shop with Harry. Afterwards, they leave to go home where they then Skype with Niall. Vacation meanders on.

Upstairs they set Eleanor’s shit down on Louis' bed before heading back downstairs again, promising themselves to take care of the blow up mattress upon their return.

 

“Bye mom! We’ll be at the ice cream place!” Louis calls out.

 

“Okay! Have fun sweetheart.”

 

Eleanor snickers. “Sweetheart.”

  


A few minutes into their walk Eleanor stops them in their motions by grabbing Louis' arm and stopping dramatically to smack her hand to her forehead.

 

Louis stares at her.

 

“We totally forgot to invite Harry!” she explains.

 

Louis frowns. “You were serious about that?”

 

“Um, duh? Why wouldn’t I be?”

 

“I mean,” he shrugs. “We weren’t really friends with him when you lived here. I don’t think he even knows who you are?”

 

“Nonsense,” she replies. “Everybody knows who I am.”

 

Louis coughs.

 

“Shut up.”

 

“I didn’t say anything!”

 

“Sure Samantha. Can you invite him now?” she gives him a look. “Unless you’re too chicken to.”

 

“Fuck off I’m doing it already.” He pulls his phone out of his coat pocket but is stopped by Eleanor placing her hand on his arm. “What? I’m actually doing it and you’re stopping me?”

 

“No, I just.” She bites her lip. “I was wondering- Can you do the thinking thing? Like, invite him via your mind? I really want to see it in person.”

 

Louis rolls his eyes. “It’s not like you’re gonna see much anyways.” However he complies upon seeing the pleading look on Eleanor’s face.

 

‘ _Harry?’_ he thinks. Honestly, he hasn’t conversed telepathically with Harry for so long, for all he knows their connection might not exist anymore.

 

‘ _Louis?’_ comes the response. ‘ _Something wrong?’_ Harry sounds tired. Maybe his mind is a bit sluggish today.

 

Eleanor prods Louis. “What’s happening?”

 

“Stop talking!”

 

‘ _Sorry?’_ Harry says, sounding unsure of himself.

 

 _‘No, not you,’_ Louis reassures. ‘ _I’m with Eleanor right now and she won’t shut up.’_ He looks down at his shoes and notices a leaf stuck to the underside of the left one. Reaching down to pluck it off, he continues. ‘ _We were wondering if you’d like to join us for ice cream? Down at the place we went a couple weeks ago.’_

 

‘ _Uhh, I’d love to. But who’s Eleanor again?’_

 

Louis grins, his point proven. ‘ _She’s my best friend. She was at our school last year, back when you didn’t know who I was.’_

 

Harry sighs. ‘ _Joking, joking. I know full well who Eleanor is. Can I meet you in twenty minutes?’_

 

Louis grins. ‘ _See you there!’_ He lets the leaf he’d just plucked off his shoe fall from his hand, watching it flutter to the ground. Suddenly he feels a sharp pain in his lower leg, courtesy of a well-placed kick from Eleanor.

 

“Well?” she says, impatient. “I just stared at you for a full minute. Something good better have come from this.”

 

Louis grins. “He’ll meet us in twenty minutes. Let’s get going.”

  


Later, after ordering bagels for them both, they find a table that sits four and sit, both waiting excitedly. Louis' excited to see Harry again, even though he just saw him in the morning, and Eleanor is just really hungry and wants some bagels.

 

The food arrives before Harry does, and they’re both tucking in to their meal as he walks in, setting his coat on the chair across from them and nodding in greeting. “What’s up? Hey Louis.”

 

They both smile at him. Eleanor perks up. “Maybe you should order your food before we talk,” she suggests.

 

“Good idea.” He walks up to the counter, leaving them to their devices.

 

Eleanor turns to Louis. “Harry got hot since last year,” she remarks, raising an eyebrow. “That soccer training is doing him well.”

 

Louis gives her a stink-eye. “Don’t thirst after my man,” he jokes.

 

Eleanor smirks, raising her arms in defeat. “I’m just saying! I can tell why you want to fuck him.”

 

“Eugh, gross.” Louis gags. “Never.”

 

Eleanor winks. “Just give it a few years.”

 

He flips her off as Harry returns to the table, burger in hand. He sets it down before sitting and starting a conversation with Eleanor, clearly trying to get to know her better.

 

Louis leans back in his chair and watches as his two friends exchange pointless small talk. He hopes they can become friends someday, although it’s unlikely due to Eleanor living in a different country. The afternoon is going quite well until, fifteen minutes into their rendezvous, Eleanor suddenly clutches her cheek in pain.

 

“What is it?” he questions, worried.

 

“It’s- fuck. My mouth is bleeding again.”

 

Harry looks a little grossed out. “Again?”

 

“She just got her wisdom teeth removed,” Louis explains, before turning his attention back to his best friend. “Do you need anything?” he asks.

 

Eleanor shakes her head. “Just need to go to the bathroom.” She subtly winks at him and- oh. She’s pretending to go to the bathroom so Louis and Harry can have some time alone.

 

“You little shit,” Louis says under his breath, grateful nonetheless.

 

Eleanor pushes her chair back, covering her mouth with her left hand as she uses the other to grab a napkin off the table. “I’ll be right back,” she chokes convincingly. Louis watches her leave.

 

Once she’s gone he turns back to Harry, who is already staring at him. “Does she do that a lot?” he asks.

 

“Nah,” Louis says. Suddenly a thought crosses his mind. “What did you mean before when you said you know ‘full well’ who Eleanor is?”

 

“What?”

 

“Before,” Louis prompts. “When we were talking. Or, well, thinking.”

 

“Oh, um. I dunno. Why? What do you mean?” Harry replies, confused. He bites down into his burger.

 

“It’s just, knowing ‘full well’ who someone is usually means you don’t like them.”

 

“Oh, right.” He languidly wipes a spot of grease off his hands before saying, “It really wasn’t anything personal. I just held a grudge.”

 

Louis' confused. “About what? We didn’t know each other last year.”

 

“Well,” he sets down his burger. “In truth, I was jealous.”

 

Louis feels his throat constrict. “What for?”

 

“Well,” Harry pauses for effect. “Last year I had this monster crush on you, I was so jealous of her for being best friends with you.”

 

“You’re joking,” Louis deadpans, refusing to let his wishes take over reality.

 

“Don’t worry,” Harry says. “I’m almost over you.” He sighs longingly.

 

Louis stares at him. “Idiot.”

 

“Rude!” Harry breaks his facade, cracking a smile. “Here I am trying to make a joke and you call me an idiot!”

 

“Did you honestly think I would believe you?”

 

Harry frowns. “Why wouldn’t you?”

 

“We’ve established this, Harry. Someone like you would never have a crush on someone like me.” Louis sighs.

 

Harry looks aggravated. “If only you knew,” he mutters.

 

Louis is about to ask him what he means when Eleanor walks back in and reclaims her seat next to him. Feeling slightly intruded upon, he changes the subject. “So why did you actually hold a grudge against Eleanor?” he asks Harry again, hoping for a real answer this time.

 

Eleanor immediately starts snickering. Harry gives her a glance before saying, “honestly it’s kind of childish.”

 

“In what way?”

 

“In the sense of, like, she sat on my sandwich once.”

 

“You’re fucking with me.” Louis looks at them both individually, hoping he’s being messed with again. “You’re holding a grudge over a sandwich?”

 

“It was a good sandwich!” Harry says indignantly. “Cost me a fortune. And she just sat on it!”

 

Eleanor cackles. “It was a dare.”

 

“Who the fuck would dare you to sit on my sandwich?” Harry cries. “Louis, do you know anything about this??”

 

“Yeah, actually,” he groans. “I was the one who dared her.”

 

“You little shit.” Harry grins. “Trust you to do something like that. But honestly, why?”

 

Louis thinks. In truth, he had done it in hopes that Eleanor, the charismatic little shit she is, would strike a conversation with Harry and eventually introduce him to Louis. It had obviously not gone according to plan. He continues thinking. “I guess it was just the first thing that came to mind,” he lies.

 

“Rude one you are,” Harry jokes. “You owe me a sandwich now.”

 

A thought crosses Louis' mind. “Speaking of what I owe you, I have to give you back your clothes.”

 

Harry furrows his eyebrows. “My what?”

 

“”Your pyjamas,” Louis corrects. “I accidently took them home with me.”

 

“Oh, right.” Harry waves a hand nonchalantly. “You can keep them. The pants are too small for me anyways.”

 

Louis feels himself smile involuntarily. “Really?” he asks. “What about the shirt then?”

 

Harry shrugs. “I don’t really need that. You can give it back if you want to, though.”

 

“Nah, I’ll keep it,” Louis says, a little too quickly. Eleanor gives him a pointed look. “What?” he says, “It’s comfortable.”

 

“Right.”

 

“Uh, guys,” Harry says, glancing down at his phone. “I gotta go.”

 

“Aw, so soon?” Eleanor asks.

 

“Yeah, sorry. We have relatives coming over, so me and my sister have been tasked with cleaning the house.” He pulls a face.

 

“We should make our way home anyways,” Louis says to Eleanor. Then, turning to Harry, “maybe we can hang out again during the holidays?”

 

Harry grins. “Definitely.”

 

And with that they’re packing up, pulling on their coats and bringing their dirty plates to the counter. When they’ve left the building Harry turns to them, briefly hugging Eleanor before saying to Louis, “we’ll see eachother soon!”

 

Louis smiles. “Maybe we can hang out as the three of us before Eleanor leaves.”

 

“Yeah, maybe,” Harry drawls absentmindedly. “I’m still butthurt about the sandwich though.”

 

Eleanor scoffs, standing by as Louis and Harry hug. The hug lasts a moment longer than necessary, making her scoff again, before they pull apart and Harry walks off. Once he’s out of earshot she turns to Louis. “That was surprisingly fun!”

 

“Uh, yeah?” Louis says. “Did you think it’d be anything else?”

 

“Well, I mean, you and Harry have only been friends for what? Two weeks?”

 

“True. But what does that have to do with anything?”

 

“It’s nothing, really,” she assures. “I just thought it might be awkward because you don’t know each other that well yet.”

 

Louis frowns. “Uh, okay?” He’s not getting the point of this observation.

 

“Well,” Eleanor continues, “you have a surprising amount of chemistry! Not even romantic, but more on a friendship level. Like you two were destined to be friends.”

 

“Great,” Louis says. “I’m destined to stay in the friendzone forever.”

 

Eleanor bats his arm. “You’d make a cute couple too! Maybe it you write him an anonymous valentine…”

 

“Not gonna happen.”

 

“Aw, come one,” she pleads, pulling at his jacket sleeve. “I’ll help you write it!”

 

“Nope.” Louis releases himself from her grip before slowly walking away. “Come on! We still have to make your bed!”

 

“You suck!” Eleanor calls out after him, before giving in and running to catch up.

  


They enter the house not ten minutes later, kicking their boots off and leaving their coats draped over the couch before going upstairs. They enter Louis' room where they find, to their surprise, that his mom had already made Eleanor’s bed and taken the laundry down for a washing. “Oh sweet mercy!” Eleanor cries, throwing herself down on the bed. “I love your mom so much!”

 

Louis chuckles. “Don’t let her hear you saying that.” He walks over and joins her on the mattress, pulling off his socks and tossing them carelessly behind him.

 

“Louis,” Eleanor says, disappointed. “Your mom just collected your laundry for you. Have the decency to put your shit in the hamper.” She pushes herself off the bed and goes to pick up his socks, holding her nose shut as she does.

 

He shrugs. “If you want to clean my dirty clothes, have at it.”

 

“Not how I imagined my vacation going,” she grumbles. However, like the neat freak she is, she takes a moment to drop Louis' socks in the hamper before coming back to join him on the bed.

 

“Now what?” he says, stretching out and lying down on his stomach.

 

“Dunno. Let’s talk.” Eleanor stands up and goes over to Louis' bed, dropping down and spreading out. “What’s been going on in your life as of late? Besides an overwhelming love for Harry.”

 

Louis turns his head to look at her. “I don’t love him,” he clarifies.

 

“Oh?”

 

“Well, admittedly, I have an unconventionally large crush on him, but I don’t love him.” There is a pause. “Yet.”

 

Eleanor raises her eyebrows. “Yet?” she repeats. “Do you think you could though?”

 

“Yeah, maybe,” Louis shrugs. His cheek is smooshed into the mattress and he can feel himself start to drool a little, so he adjusts himself until he’s lying on his back. “Admittedly I don’t know much about him yet. But we’re starting to be friends and, I dunno. I had built this unrealistic ideal of what kind of person he is in those years where we weren’t friends and I guess I never knew for certain who he actually was.”

 

He falters before continuing. “I couldn’t fall in love with him before because I wouldn’t know who I’m falling in love with. But now, with us starting to be friends, I think I could. It’s a possibility. A dangerous possibility.”

 

Eleanor gapes at him. “Woah,” she whispers. “That was deep.”

 

“Yeah,” he grins. “Don’t know where the fuck that came from but I don’t think I’m ever going to say something that intelligent again.”

 

She laughs. “It would be unlike you.”

 

“So,” Louis continues, off topic. “How’s your love life doing?”

 

“Meh,” she turns to face him. “There was this guy I thought was gay but as it turns out he actually has a crush on me.”

 

“Of course,” Louis chuckles. Eleanor can’t go three days without somebody having a crush on her. “What’s his name?”

 

“Francis,” she says. “I was convinced he was dating his friend, some guy named Matthew, I think. Or Michael? I can’t remember.”

 

“Aha.”

 

“No, seriously. They were super affectionate and would cheek kiss all the time. I thought the cheek-kissing was their way of showing that they were dating,” she explains. “Turns out they’re both french. Cheek kissing is a thing in France, or so I’ve heard.”

 

“Yeah, it is. Remember Jeanne?” he asks. Jeanne was a french girl who had gone to school with them for a few years. “Whenever she was with her friends she would kiss them all before even talking to them.” He shudders. “I was glad to see her go.”

 

“What, because she’s french?”

 

“No,” Louis clarifies. “She sat in front of me in chemistry. Completely blocked my view of Harry.”

 

“Oh my god.” Eleanor cackles. “You’re such a creep.”

 

“Shh,” Louis smiles. “So what are you going to do about Francis?”

 

“Well, he asked me out. So I agreed to go for lunch with him and see where it goes. If it doesn’t work out we’ll just stay friends.”

 

“That’s nice. Where are you going for the lunch?”

 

“Oh, um,” Eleanor thinks for a moment. “A pizza place, down by his house. And then afterwards we’re going for ice cream.”

 

“What?” Louis' eyes widen. “I did the exact same thing with Harry not two weeks ago. That’s not really a date.”

 

Eleanor shrugs. “It is if one of the two says it is.”

 

“But it’s not so romantic.”

 

“Doesn’t have to be. We’re just getting to know each other.”

 

“Oh.”

 

“Yeah.”

  


They continue talking aimlessly for another hour until Louis' mom calls them down for dinner. Unbeknownst to them, she had spent the entire day labouring in the kitchen, and so it is with hours of work behind her that she proudly presents them with a homemade lasagna.

 

“Dig in,” she says, laying it in front of them. “I have a dinner with some coworkers to get to. Put the leftovers in the fridge when you’re done.”

 

Louis grunts in acknowledgement as Eleanor says, “of course, have fun!”

 

“Thank you, Eleanor,” his mom says, casting a pointed look to Louis. He doesn’t notice however, already busying himself with filling his plate. She leaves then, not before giving them both hugs and planting a sloppy kiss on Louis' cheek, which he wipes off the second she leaves the house.

 

“I love your mom,” Eleanor says, grabbing a plate from the cupboard and serving herself some lasagna.

 

“I know,” Louis says through a mouthful of food. “You say that every time she does anything remotely convenient to you.”

 

“Well, yeah. She’s awesome. Now c’mon, let’s eat. I want to skype with Niall later.”

 

“Oh right.” Louis had nearly forgotten about that.

  


They both scarf down their meal, afterwards throwing their dishes in the dishwasher and covering the lasagna in tin foil. Louis puts it in the fridge as Eleanor wipes down the table, something she finds necessary to do for some reason.

 

When they’ve cleaned the kitchen to Eleanor’s satisfaction, Louis quickly runs upstairs to grab his laptop before joining her in the living room. They sit together on the left end of the couch, slumping into the pillows in a way that means they’ll have trouble getting back up again. Louis opens his skype and searches for Niall. He doesn’t have him on skype yet, but it’s a pretty safe bet that the guy named ‘Niall Horan’ is his friend. He checks the profile picture first just to be sure, before sending a friend request.

 

It’s accepted almost immediately, and Louis gets a notification soon after.

 

‘Louis?’ Niall writes. ‘Louis Tomlinson?’

 

‘Yeah, it’s me,’ he replies. Eleanor elbows him. ‘Can I call you?’

 

‘Sure.’

 

He presses the call button and soon after Niall's face fills his screen. “Hey! What’s up?” he says excitedly.

 

“Nothing much,” the other replies. “My relatives are still going crazy from the aftermath of the wedding. Apparently someone's grandma gave the bride a massive gold ring and now everybody is freaking out because nobody even knew she was rich.”

 

Louis laughs. Eleanor pokes her head onscreen and takes a look at Niall. “He’s cute,” she says. “You should have a crush on him instead of Harry.”

 

Niall stares blankly at her. “I don’t know who you are,” he says, “but I agree 100%.”

 

“This is Eleanor,” Louis explains. “She’s my best friend who moved away last year.”

 

“Aw, I’m your best friend?” Eleanor purrs, holding a hand to her heart.

 

“Duh you are. Fuck off.”

 

Niall blinks at them. “Well, uh. I'm Niall. Nice to meet you.”

 

Eleanor looks away from Louis and smiles at him. “Hey. You should date Louis to help him get over Harry.”

 

“So you've said.” Niall scratches at his eyebrow. “I don't think my girlfriend would like that though.”

 

“Aw shoot,” Eleanor sighs. “Guess we’re going to have to resume plan Larry.”

 

“Plan Larry?” Louis rolls his eyes. Of course Eleanor made them a ship name. “Why'd you call us Larry?”

 

“Well, would you rather be called Houis or something?”

 

Louis frowns.

 

“I thought as much.” Eleanor turns back to Niall. “You can help me get them together now. What interesting things may I not know about Harry?”

 

Niall thinks. “Has Louis told you about H.T?”

 

Oh shoot, Louis completely forgot to tell her about that. He groans, Niall had supposedly figured out who it was almost immediately and decided to make him puzzle it out. He should’ve asked her for help. It’s an unwritten best friend code that she would have to tell him if she knew.

 

Eleanor’s eyes narrow. “What’s H.T?”

 

Niall tries to explain but Louis cuts him off. It’s his crush, after all. “Whenever I was in Harry’s room I would find little slips of paper with the initials H.T written on them. When I asked Harry he said it was the initials of the person he has a crush on at the moment. I asked who but he won’t tell me! He says I’ll hate him if I know.” Louis groans. “Do you have any idea?

 

Eleanor thinks, biting her lip in concentration.

 

“I’m pretty sure I know who it is,” Niall interjects, eliciting a whispered ‘fuck off’ from Louis.

 

After a moment of silent pondering Eleanor looks up and says, “yeah, I think I know too.”

 

“What?” Louis says, bewildered. “How can you guys know so fast?? I have absolutely no idea!”

 

“I, for one, think it’s pretty obvious,” Eleanor says smugly. “I never knew Harry was such a lovesick kid at heart though.”

 

Louis groans. “I can’t think of a single girl with the initials H.T. And Niall, you’ve only gone to our school for like two weeks, how do you know names better than I do?”

 

Eleanor cackles. “You’ve gotta think a bit more creatively sweetheart. You’ll get it at some point.”

 

“I hate you both. Why can’t you just tell me?”

 

Niall grimaces. “Sorry buddy, it’s just not our secret to tell.”

 

“Yeah.” Eleanor sends him a sad smile. “I honestly want to tell you, you know I do. But I think we’ll have to let Harry do that.”

 

Louis gives his friends a stink eye. Deep down, he knows they’re right, but it’s kind of a let-down to know that they could figure out in less than a minute what he still hasn’t figured it out in over a week.

 

“So,” Eleanor says to Niall, breaking the awkward silence. “Tell me about yourself. What do you do for fun?”

 

“I dunno. I moved here just a couple weeks ago from France. I’m not french, by the way. I just lived there. English is my second language, my first is actually Italian. I think I have Irish blood too though. So I’m basically an ungodly mixture of France, Italy, and Ireland.”

 

“That explains the accent,” Eleanor notes.

 

Louis chuckles as Niall continues. “I love to play guitar, uhh, I spend most of my waking hours doing that. Oh, I also play soccer. I’m on the team with Harry.”

 

Louis' head snaps up from where he had laid it on Eleanor’s shoulder. “What? You’ve never mentioned that! Why weren’t you at training yesterday?”

 

“Because I’m not in the same country, dumbass.”

 

“Oh,” Louis feels stupid. “Forgot about that.”

 

A moment later they hear a key turning in the lock, presumably Louis' mom home from her colleagues dinner. Eleanor stands up immediately to help her bring her stuff in, leaving Louis to hang up on Niall. “My mom is home,” he explains. “I should go. Talk soon!”

 

Niall waves at the lens as Louis presses the end call button and shuts his laptop, carrying it with him into the hallway where he sees Eleanor helping his mom out of her coat. “Hey mom,” he greets. “Uh, I’ll be upstairs if you need me.” He walks to the staircase and is soon joined by Eleanor.

 

“You up for binge-watching a show?” he asks.

 

Eleanor shakes her head. “I’m a bit jet-lagged. I’d rather just go to sleep.”

 

Louis smiles, throwing an arm around her shoulders. “Tomorrow, then.”

 

Eleanor smiles back tiredly. “Yeah, for sure.”

 

They don’t talk anymore when they get to Louis' room, both silently changing into their pyjamas. Louis notices, to his delight, that his mom hadn’t taken Harry’s clothes with the rest of the wash. He pulls them on gratefully, reveling in the sheer comfort of the soft shirt. Eleanor joins him in the bathroom, where they silently brush their teeth. Not a word is spoken until they’ve both climbed into bed and are completely relaxed under the covers.

 

“Good night,” Eleanor calls out, sounding exhausted.

 

“Night, princess,” Louis says, smiling. He reaches out with his left hand to turn off his bedside light, which is the only light still on. He fishes his phone out of his pocket, having to contort himself a little because he’s under the blanket. When he’s got it out, he opens whatsapp in hopes of texting Harry. To his surprise, he sees an unopened message from him that he’d been sent just a little over five minutes ago.

 

‘I had a great time with you today, Lou. We should do it again soon:)’

 

Louis smiles to himself. He vaguely remembers telling Niall once not to call him Lou because it sounds like a pet name, but somehow he likes it when Harry says it.

 

He types quickly, feeling himself already drifting off to sleep. ‘I had fun too, Hazza.’

 

He contemplates whether or not to send the text. After all, Harry had just called him Lou, so he should be able to say Hazza. But what if he thinks it’s weird? Louis decides he’s overthinking it and just sends the text. Harry starts typing immediately.

 

‘Hazza?’ he writes. ‘That’s new.’

 

Shit, Louis panickes. He thinks it’s weird. He’s just about to apologize when he gets another text.

 

‘I like it though, it’s cute.’

 

He smiles and adjusts his position on the bed, slowly drifting off with his phone still clutched in his left hand. The screen is still on and by the time it shuts off, he’s fast asleep.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm now in my new house, so I'm starting to get situated and I can go back to writing. Sorry for the wait, everything will go back to normal soon. Enjoy the chapter!


	8. CHAPTER 8 PART 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eleanor's days visiting Louis are slowly coming to an end, and they are trying to make the most of it. They meet up with Scott and he and Eleanor start to become friends. The actual chapter title will come with part 2

When Louis wakes up the next morning it’s to the sounds of Eleanor singing as she sets her folded pyjamas on her makeshift bed. He groans, running a hand through his hair as he checks the time. 9:14, he reads. Well that’s not too bad. With a grunt he pulls himself out of bed and goes to his closet to get his clothes for the day. He grabs a pair of jeans and blindly reaches for a shirt, throwing them both on his bed. He then strips himself of his pyjamas, forgetting that he’s not alone.

 

“Gah!” Eleanor cries, shielding her eyes. “Put some fucking clothes on!”

 

Louis pales. “I’m so sorry, I forgot you’re here!” Well, at least he hasn’t taken off his underwear yet. He grabs the small pile of clothes from atop his bed and locks himself in the bathroom, hearing Eleanor stifle a sigh of relief.

 

“I’m friends with an idiot,” she mutters under her breath.

 

“Hey!” he cries indignantly. “I can still hear you!”

 

“Shut up,” she retorts. “Your opinion isn’t valid until you’ve got clothes on.”

  
  


With that eventful morning fiasco, Louis and Eleanor walk downstairs together, sniffing the air like dogs. “It smells so good,” Louis remarks. “I think my mom made pancakes.”

 

When they walk into the kitchen, they find that Louis is right. There is a plate in the middle of the table with a small pile of pancakes atop it. He spots a note lying next to the plate, explaining that his mom is out shopping for groceries and will be back within the hour. Eleanor snatches the note from his hands and discards it. “Come on,” she says. “Let’s eat.”

 

***

 

The rest of the morning passes peacefully. Louis takes a lengthy shower as Eleanor calls her parents to give them an update into her travel. They have no plans for the day and spend a few hours lounging aimlessly in the living room, talking about anything and everything. This can only go on for so long, however, and they’re both reaching boredom by the time 2 o’clock comes around. Louis' mom had returned a couple hours ago and was now up in her room, doing weird yoga-meditation exercises she’d learned off a DVD that had been re-gifted to her.

 

Niall isn’t online when they try to call him, although he responds a few minutes later apologizing and promising to talk within the next few days. Harry isn’t available either, still tied up with the task of cleaning his house. He tells them that his relatives are staying until the 20th and he’s free every day after that. Louis checks the date. It’s currently the 16th of december, which leaves four more days until he can see Harry. Eleanor’s flight back is on the 23rd, leaving a narrow window for them to hang out as a threesome. He tells Harry this, who replies almost immediately and suggests they meet up on the 21st.

 

‘Same place?’ he writes.

 

‘See you then:)’

 

“Dude,” Eleanor prods him with her big toe from where she’s sitting. “What’s going on?”

 

Louis turns off his phone and chucks it blindly behind him. “Harry’s tied up until the 20th,” he says, “but he agreed to meet us at the ice cream place on the 21st.”

 

“Oh, nice! What about Niall?”

 

“Oh, uh.” He thinks. “He promised to talk with us more over the next few days. I don’t know when he’ll be back, but I think it’s safe to assume he’ll stay in Italy until after christmas.”

 

“Aw, shoot.” Eleanor looks genuinely distraught. “I was excited to meet him!”

 

Louis reaches over and ruffles her hair, earning himself a kick in the shin. “Ow, fuck! I was going to comfort you, ya little shit!”

 

She laughs. “Sorry. You know you shouldn’t ruffle my hair, though.”

 

“Still,” he grumbles. “Don’t gotta kick me.”

 

“Come on, you drama queen,” she responds, rolling her eyes. “Let’s go outside.”

 

He shrugs in response, knowing they don’t have much else to do. They bundle themselves up in their winter gear, and Louis throws a winter glove at Eleanor in retaliation for the kick she had given him before. She ignores him and pulls on her winter boots. They leave soon after, stopping only briefly to shout that they’re leaving to his mom. She doesn’t respond, probably too wrapped up in her meditation to have heard them.

 

***

 

The next few days pass similarly, with both Eleanor and Louis waking up early and taking showers before heading out for the day. They stop by the school on monday, sitting on the benches outside so Eleanor can reminisce on her years spent there with Louis. They go to the cinema on tuesday, although the movie ends up being a lot more boring then they’d originally thought and both of them end up taking a nap during the film. Most of their time, however, is spent lounging around the living room, talking and watching netflix. The days pass quickly, much too quickly, and soon it’s already the morning of the 21st, two days before Eleanor is due to head home.

 

In the morning they both shower again, Eleanor out of personal hygiene reasons and Louis because it had just occurred to him that they’d be meeting with Harry again. He pulls on his favorite sweater afterwards, an old black one from a camp he’d gone to when he was younger, and pads downstairs to wait for Eleanor in kitchen.

 

He pulls out his phone to pass the time, texting with Niall for a few minutes before messing around on instagram. He resists the temptation to go through Harry’s profile (again), and instead stalks some random celebrity from a show he’s currently watching. He makes it as far back as the summer of 2013 before Eleanor joins him, fully dressed with her hair up in a towel. She has on a bit of lipstick, he notes.

 

Louis' eyes narrow. “Why the lipstick?” he questions innocently.

 

“It’s for an experiment I’m conducting,” she replies, grabbing a bagel from the breadbasket. “I’m wondering whether 24 hour makeup really lasts 24 hours.”

 

“Really?” Louis is surprised. 

 

“No, you twat. It’s just colored chapstick.” she laughs. “I can take it off if it’s making you all hot and bothered.”

 

He shudders. “Ew, no.”

 

Eleanor gasps, holding a hand over her heart. “You really think I’m that ugly? I’m offended!”

 

Louis rolls his eyes. “No, I’m just super fucking gay.”

 

She giggles, biting into her bagel. “Speaking of gay, have you arranged a time with Harry yet?”

 

“Oh, shoot I forgot. Thanks for reminding me.” He texts Harry, ignoring as Eleanor slides up to him to peer over his shoulder. They quickly arrange a time, 1 o’clock, and agree to meet at the front door of the cafe. They still have a couple hours to kill before they need to leave, so, grabbing some food as they go, they traipse back up to Louis' room and talk mindlessly for a while longer.

  
  


Time passes slowly but eventually the clock turns to 12:30 and it’s time to get ready to leave. They bundle up in winter coats and fluffy hats before stepping outside, texting Harry to tell him they’re leaving before they start walking. They go slowly, savoring their last few moments together as it’s the 21st and Eleanor leaves early in the morning on the 23rd. The walk is uneventful, save for when Louis nearly splits his head open on the pavement after slipping on a wet leaf. Eleanor is still cackling when they enter the ice cream shop a few minutes later.

 

They find a table and wait patiently, not ordering their food yet. Last time they’d ordered their food before Harry joined them and were consequently left to awkwardly watch him eat once they’d finished their plates. It was weird and uncomfortable, so this time they opted to wait and get everybody’s food at the same time. 

 

It’s not long before they hear the door opening, both snapping their heads up to find Harry standing alone in the doorway. His eyes search the room before settling on Eleanor. He then waves and walks over to their table. “Hey,” he says, pulling off his gloves as he looks at Louis. “Have you guys ordered yet?”

 

“Nope,” Louis answers. “We wanted to wait for you.” He keeps looking at Harry as he smiles and starts unzipping his jacket, draping it over the back of the seat next to him. Harry sits down next to him, and Louis can feel his heart actually stutter when their legs brush against each other under the table. He covers himself by reaching to the center of the table and grabbing a menu. He opens it and hides behind the pages. They sit in comfortable silence before Eleanor walks up to the bar, placing their orders.

 

Harry turns to him and smiles softly. “Hey,” he says. “Haven’t talked to you alone for a while. How’re you doing?”

 

“Eh,” he shrugs. “I’ve had a really good break so far, but I’m kind of sad Eleanor is going home after tomorrow.”

 

“Aww,” Harry frowns. “I’m starting to like her! I’ve even forgiven her for the sandwich thing!”

 

“Oh, wow,” Louis chuckles. “That’s huge.”

 

“I know, right!” Harry smiles. “But seriously, I think I’ll miss her. I might ask her for her number.”

 

“Wait,” Louis narrows his eyes suspiciously. “You don’t….. Have the hots for her, do you?”

 

Harry looks at him strangely. “No, dumbass. Remember I have a crush on that person I was writing the notes for? Which we are never going to talk about again, by the way!”

 

“Oh, right. I still don’t know who it is.” Louis sighs. “I wish you would just tell me.”

 

Harry shrugs. “I probably will, someday. I’m not one for keeping secrets from people.”

 

Louis pokes his arm. “Or you could just tell me right now.”

 

Harry pokes his stomach. “Or I also couldn’t”

 

Louis' about to poke him back when Eleanor joins them at the table, waiter in tow. He sets their food down and leaves, taking the menus with him. She sits down with them and the three of them tuck in, abandoning any conversation. 

 

They spend quite a long time in the cafe, watching different people mill in and out of the shop. The atmosphere is pleasant, although it’s slowly starting to dawn on Louis that this is one of the last days he’ll be able to hang out with Eleanor. Strangely, he doesn’t feel too sad about it. It’s been awesome to hang out with her again after so many months only being able to talk over the phone, but there’s only so much socialisation he can take at once. And after days on end of constant socialising, he’s finally at his limit. After Eleanor leaves he’s gonna crawl into his room and stay there until his mom drags him out on christmas morning. 

 

“I should leave,” Harry says suddenly. He stands up, picking up his jacket and pulling it on. They’d only been in the cafe for about ten minutes, but Harry had finished his sandwich minutes ago, and probably felt weird just watching the other two eat.

 

Louis puts down the slice of pizza he’d been chewing at for two minutes to glance at him. It feels like he should ask Harry to stay but honestly, he wants to spend more time with Eleanor alone before she leaves. So, instead of arguing, he says, “okay! We’ll hang out after christmas?”

 

An indescribable expression passes over Harry’s face before he says, “yeah. Maybe.” He leaves then, turning around slightly at the door to give them a wave, before leaving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is PART 1 of chapter 8. I just moved, so my life is chaotic right now. Part two of chapter 8 isn't written yet, and I can't promise it will be up within the week, but I promise I will be writing whenever I have time, I just don't have much time right now.
> 
> I will be back into my normal schedule soon, but as I changed schools everything is a little weird. I'm a 10th grader, and my new school is using a completely different exam program then my old one did. I'm overwhelmed. Not too overwhelmed to read comments, though! that was a hint;)


	9. The Playground

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis, with Eleanor's help, finally comes out to his mom. The next day, she catches a flight back to where she lives and Louis has an unexpected hangout with Harry at the little kids playground close to his house.
> 
> _THIS IS CHAPTER 8 PART 2_

“So,” Eleanor says, turning to face his as she delicately wipes a spot of mustard off her upper lip, “do you have any plans for your birthday yet?”

 

“What? Oh, not really,” Louis replies. Honestly, he’d been so wrapped up in Eleanor’s visit and hanging out with Harry that he’d completely forgotten it was just days away. He briefly contemplating inviting Harry over, but he pushed the thought out of his mind as he realised Harry would want to be with his family on Christmas eve. 

 

Suddenly, with absolutely no prompting or reason, he a fleeting thought crosses his mind and he grabs on to it. “Dude,” he says. “Let’s come out to my mom!”

 

“What?” Eleanor chokes, halfway through swallowing a bite of her sandwich. “Right now??”

 

“Yeah, why not? I just remembered you said you’d help me do it a couple days ago!”

 

“Well, uh, sure I’ll help you. But are you sure you want to? This is kinda sudden.”

 

“Well, I’d rather do it right now and get it out of the way, you know? Plus, if I put too much thought into it I’d get way too anxious and end up not doing it.”

 

“True,” Eleanor says slowly. “Well, if you really want to do it, let’s go right now!” She stands up, pushing her chair in and bringing her dirty dish up to the counter. Louis grabs his jacket and wallet and runs to catch up to her as she leaves the store.

 

“Woah, woah. Slow down, man,” Louis says as he runs up beside her, already slightly out of breath. “We’re in no rush.”

 

“Eh, I just walk faster ‘cause I’m taller,” she replies, ruffling his hair to coax a reaction out of him.

 

Louis just rolls his eyes, ignoring the height comment. People make them all the times anyways, and it’s not like he really cares anyways. “Whatever, I like being short. Means I can hug Harry better.”

 

Eleanor chuckles, her breath turning white in the air. “Anyways,” she says, “have you thought of what to say to your mom?”

 

“Eh…… Nope. Figured I’d just wing it.”

 

“Really? What, you’re just gonna walk up like ‘HEY YO MA I’M GAY AS SHIT OKAY BYE!!’”

 

“Yeah, something like that,” Louis snorts.

  
  


***

  
  


Ten minutes later as they’re walking up to Louis' front door, Louis is having a war in his head. Not on whether to come out or not, as he’s already firmly made his mind up on that, but rather on whether or not to actually come out the way Eleanor had jokingly suggested. On the one hand, Eleanor might actually start crying with laughter if he did it, but on the other hand, this was his coming out and he probably should take it a bit more seriously. In the end, he decides again to just wing it. Not the way Eleanor had suggested, though. 

 

“Hey mom, you here?” Louis calls out as they step through the doorway and kick off their boots. “MOTHER!!”

 

“Yeah, yeah. I’m here!” she calls back from upstairs. “You need anything?”

 

“Yeah, come downstairs please! I have to tell you something.”

 

“Kay gimme a sec though!”

 

As they wait, Louis runs through a list of possible reactions his mom might have. The worst, one which is making him second guess himself, is the one where she gets angry and kicks him out of the house. ‘ _ She would never do that, though _ ’ he thinks, trying to reassure himself.

 

‘ _ Do what?’ _ a voice responds.

 

Oh right! After days of silence, Louis had nearly forgotten about his telepathic link with Harry. Somehow he'd started to hear his crushes thoughts less and less over time. ‘ _ Nothing, I'm just having some second thoughts about coming out to my mom.’ _

 

‘ _ You're coming out to your mom??’ _ Harry replies, excited. ‘ _ When did this become a thing?’ _

 

_ ‘Dunno. It was a spur of the moment thing really,’ _ Louis replies.

 

“Alright I'm done up here, coming down now!!” his mom calls out suddenly.

 

Louis wipes his hands on his pants and thinks, ‘ _ alright, wish me luck.’ _

 

‘ _ Goodluck man. Text me the outcome?’ _

 

_ ‘Of course.’ _

 

***

 

“So what do you need?” his mom asks, bounding down the steps in her bright pink yoga pants. Louis groans. Of course his mom would be wearing bright pink yoga pants during his coming out.

 

He gulps, losing all confidence he'd built up in himself. “Well I- uh. I just, um. It's not that important actually nevermind.”

 

“You sure?” his mom asks. “Seemed pretty important before.”

 

Eleanor elbows him. “Come on, I'm right here. Moral support for the win!!”

 

Louis cracks a slight smile, only to immediately start frowning again. He feels Eleanor's hand grab onto his, anchoring him. With a sudden surge of courage, he says, “well, I'm.” He pauses to take a breath. “I’m gay.”

 

“Okay,” his mom shrugs, smiling slightly. It seems as if, while she hadn’t expected it, the news has certainly not come as a shock to her. 

 

Louis doesn’t say anything, smiling in relief that his mom hadn’t stormed out or started yelling at him. Eleanor takes his silence as a good sign and nudges him with her shoulder. “See?” he says. “I told you she wouldn’t hate you.”

 

“Hate you? Honey,” she says reassuringly, “you know I don’t actually care, don’t you?”

 

Louis shrugs nonchalantly. Of course he knows his mom isn't homophobic, but it’s easier said than done when it comes to coming out. There's always been an irrational fear at the back of his mind that maybe she wouldn’t accept him, that she might find it weird. “I dunno,” he mutters.

 

“Oh, no no no! You know I love you no matter what, boobear!” his mom reassures, pinching his cheek.

 

Louis blushes and bats away her hand as Eleanor laughs. “boobear,” she repeats, snickering.

 

“Shut up.”

 

“Well, if that's all,” his mom interrupts, “I have some yoga to be getting back to.”

 

Louis laughs, “yes mom, that’s all. You can go back to your yoga.”

 

His mom smiles, briefly patting him on the arm before going back upstairs. A moment later they hear her trademark yoga music playing through the speakers upstairs. Louis smiles.

  
  
  


Ten minutes later, when they're upstairs and his mom had since returned to her yoga, he pulls out his phone to text Harry.

 

‘It went well’ he writes, seeing Harry start to reply almost immediately.

 

‘I'm glad xx.”

 

Louis smiles to himself, shutting off his phone and throwing it onto the bed behind him. He'd just come out to his mom. And everything went perfectly fine.

 

***

 

The last two days until Eleanor is due to leave pass rather quickly. After hanging out with Harry and coming out to Louis' mom on the 21st, they'd spent the 22nd packing up Eleanor's stuff and going for one last walk around town. They had tried to skype with Niall at night, but he was with his relatives at some fancy restaurant and wasn't allowed to leave the dinner table, something which evidently ticked him off. Harry went off the grid after their hangout on the 21st, although he'd told Louis beforehand so they weren't too worried about that. 

 

The morning of the 23rd of december, a sunday, Louis was shaken awake at 4am by Eleanor, who stood fully dressed before him. “Come on,” she says. “We have to go!”

 

“What?” he mumbles, his voice still groggy. “What do you mean?”

 

Eleanor rolls her eyes at him. “My flight is at 8 o’clock, we have to leave!”

 

Louis sits up quickly. “It’s at 8 o’clock at night though? Go back to sleep!”

 

Eleanor blinks at him. “You’re kidding, right? My ticket says 8 o’clock-”

 

“-Exactly!” Louis interrupts. “If it was morning it would say 8am!”

 

“No,” Eleanor says, “if it was at night it would say 20 o’clock. The rest of the world doesn’t use your dumb am/pm system.”

 

Louis rubs his eyes. “Fuck. I guess that means I have to get up now?”

 

Eleanor nods, walking towards his closet. “Go brush your teeth,” she says. “I'll pick out some clothes for you.”

 

“Thanks.” Louis drags himself out of bed with a groan. He is not a morning person.

  
  
  


Fifty minutes later they’re standing in front of the gates to security. Louis had taken ages to get ready, which led to them being desperately behind schedule. The original plan was to be in the airport by 4:30am so that Eleanor and Louis could have a long, tearful goodbye, but that option was now out of the question. Their goodbye was rather a quick shove by Louis and an air kiss from Eleanor, and it was over the second she ran through security. She only turned around briefly to shout, “i’ll call you when I land!!” before she began hectically throwing her stuff into the security bins to get through as soon as possible. 

 

_ ‘Trust me and Eleanor to fuck up our goodbye this bad. How did we manage to come nearly half an hour late?’ _ Louis thinks ruefully, once he and his mom are seated in the car. ‘ _ Probably because I got up like an hour late, whoops’ _ he realises. Harry doesn’t reply to the thought, presumably asleep. The ride home only last 15 minutes, but by the time they pull into the driveway Louis has fallen asleep. His mom, being the angel she she is, decides to leave him there.

 

And so three hours later, at the time he’d normally be getting up, he wakes up in his car with a pain in his neck. The reason he woke up, as it turns out, is a series of sharp knocks on the window. He groggily raises his head to see Harry standing outside the car, waving with one hand while using the other to hold up a bag of donuts.

 

“Hey,” Harry says, smiling, once Louis has rolled down the car window. “I brought you some breakfast!” He peers towards the house. “Eleanor’s gone, right?”

 

Louis sits up and nods. He grabs his jacket from the back of the car before opening the door and stepping out. He’s greeted by a gust of cold air, flushing his cheeks and making his breath turn to wisps of smoke. Harry bites his lip, making Louis' heart stutter, and asks, “wanna hang out today? I know your birthday is tomorrow and christmas is after that, so we won’t be seeing each other for a while.”

 

Louis looks up at him. “Do you have anything in mind?”

 

Harry winks. “You’ll see.” He grabs Louis' arm and pulls him down the driveway, away from his house. “But first let’s eat these donuts!”

  
  


Harry, as it turns out, doesn’t have a plan. As they’re walking away from Louis' house, he admits that he didn’t have anything particular in mind, so long as they didn’t stay at home. They walk aimlessly for around ten minutes, eating the donuts, when Harry suddenly stops in his tracks, grabbing on to Louis' arm for good measure. “I have a great idea!” he declares, evidently proud of himself. “Let’s go to the school playground!”

 

“And that’s a good idea, how exactly?” Louis asks sarcastically. “That playground’s made for six year olds!”

 

“Well,” Harry ponders, “I’ve got the maturity of a six year old, and you’re about as tall as one, so I think we’ll fit right in!”

 

Louis scoffs, rolling his eyes. “Can’t argue with that.”

  
  


The walk to the playground is short, barely lasting three minutes. When they arrive, Harry throws open the foot-high gate with extreme gusto, before making an immediate beeline for the slides. “Watch me go down the slide!” he calls out behind him.

 

Louis watches, with a fond look in his eyes, as Harry stomps up the ladder, lightly banging his head on the handrail above him. He hears a harshly muttered curse before Harry reaches the top of the slide and sits down, rubbing his head. “Are you ready to see me go down?” he calls out. Louis nods, giving him a quick thumbs up. Harry grins and pushes off.

 

About two thirds of the way down, the inevitable happens. Harry gets stuck. The slide is only 6 inches wide, so it was bound to happen, but Louis still isn’t prepared for the adorable disgruntled expression that follows. “Dammit,” Harry groans, hitting the sides of the slide as if to make them release him. “I knew this was going to happen.” 

 

He ends up having to do an awkward shimmy to get himself to the bottom, and Louis' nearly pissing himself with laughter by the time he does. “Shove off,” Harry says, laughing. “The slide and I were never meant to be. I’m moving on to the big-boy equipment.” He looks around the playground before spotting a climbing wall. “There,” he says, pointing to it. “That’s the one.”

 

Louis watches, bemused, as Harry jogs over to the four foot climbing wall in the back corner of the park and squats before it. Still in his strange sitting position, he grabs on to a handhold and slowly start climbing.

 

“Truly the picture of elegance,” Louis laughs breathlessly, watching Harry as he attempts to scale the four foot climbing wall. The foot holds are too small for his feet, and it isn’t long before Harry manages to fall off, hitting his ass on the way down.

 

“Agh,” he groans, standing up and rubbing his behind. “I should not have done that.”

 

Louis giggles. “The thought is only occurring to you now??”

 

“Shut up,” Harry smiles. “Meanie. I’m done with playing now anyway, let’s go to the swings.”

 

Louis shrugs in response and follows him to the swing set. The swing are also too short for them, hovering around fifteen inches off the ground, but they both ignore it and sit. They swing a couple times before Harry stops abruptly, turning to face Louis. “I wanted to ask,” he starts, “how did your coming out go? Like, how did you do it?”

 

Louis shrugs, also coming to a halt on his tiny swing. “I kinda just told her, really. She just said ’okay’, as if she wasn’t really surprised by it.” Louis frowns. “Then she called me boobear, though. Eleanor’s gonna make fun of me for weeks about that one.”

 

Harry smiles. “Mind if I call you boobear?”

 

“Um yes I would mind, thank you,” Louis says, appalled. He thinks for a moment. “You can call me something else though, if you’re creative enough to think of a nickname.”

 

Harry grins wickedly. “How ‘bout I call you babe?”

 

Louis' eyes widen. “I- uhh,” he stutters. In truth, he would very much like to be called that. Possibly under different circumstances, though.

 

“Well, babe, how’s life?” Harry asks, taking his silence as a yes. “We haven’t talked much since Eleanor came to visit. How’s your crush doing? Starting to get over it?”

 

Louis buries his face in his hands, suddenly blushing. “He’s fine,” he says nonchalantly. “My crush is still as hopeless as ever and no, it’s not going away.” He groans. “God, I wish it would go away. Why do I always crush on the straight ones?”

 

Harry reaches over and pats his arm. “It’s the universe’s way of saying fuck you. I got fucked over too, if it’s any consolation. I am now almost certain I know who my crush is crushing on. And no, it’s not me.”

 

Louis frowns. “I’m sure you have a chance with her. My problem is that my crush is just entirely not attracted to my gender, you’ve got it easier. Maybe just give her signs that you like her?”

 

Harry groans, running his hands over his face. “I do! They’re just so oblivious!”

 

“What signs?”

 

“Well, I hang out with them as much as I possibly can, for starters. I really like hanging out with them, but I think they’d rather hang out with their other friends, which sucks. I also compliment them a lot? I think the world of them, and I want to make sure they know that.” Harry looks at the ground. “I hug them a lot too. I nearly kissed them once, but I chickened out in the last second and went for a cheek kiss instead.”

 

“All that and she still hasn’t realised?”

 

“Completely oblivious.”

 

“Dumb girl,” Louis says.

 

“Yeah,” Harry echos, staring at him. “Dumb girl.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! It's been a while. There are a whole bunch of reasons why I haven't been updating, but I'm not going to get into those. I just want to say I'm really, really sorry for anybody who's been waiting for this update. It's not so long, but at least chapter 8 is now up in it's entirety?  
> Anyways, I'm really trying to regularly write but it's been hard to do lately. I really don't want to abandon this story!! I have the whole plat planned out and I really like the way it ends, I just need [a while] to get back into the groove of writing.  
> I really appreciate comments!! Even if to just say that I made some kind of spelling error in the text of whatever. I love to know when somebody is reading the story and enjoying it!  
> I'm off to go disappear for another month, toodles:)


	10. Christmas Break Really Does Drag On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> christmas break, louis' birthday? honestly it's been so long since i've read through everything i genuinely have no idea what's going on and it's my own book.

Louis wakes up on the 24th of December, his birthday, with a nagging feeling in his stomach. He’s hungry.

 

What else is new.

 

He gets up quickly, throwing on an old sweater before heading downstairs. His mom isn’t awake yet so, not knowing how to cook, he makes himself a bowl of cereal before heading to the living room. He turns on the TV, planning on watching some cartoons, when his phone starts buzzing with an incoming video call. Who would be calling him at 7am on his birthday? Probably his grandma.

 

As it turns out, it isn’t his grandma. But he almost wishes it was, because when he answers the phone, his ear is filled with the horrible sounds of Eleanor trying to sing happy birthday to him. “Shut up!” he yelp, thrusting his phone away from him. “You know you can’t sing for shit!!”

 

Eleanor laughs, and Louis cautiously picks up his phone again.”Happy birthday!!” she grins. “I can’t believe you’re finally fifteen, you young soul!”

 

Louis smiles. “Shut up! Just because you’re a couple months older than me-”

 

“And you’re the youngest in the grade, don’t forget!” Eleanor laughs. “Has Harry wished you a happy birthday yet?”

 

“Nope, I don’t know if he will, though. He’s probably forgotten about it.”

 

As if on cue, Louis' phone buzzes with an incoming text. Eleanor raises her eyebrows. “From the look on your face, I’m assuming that was Harry. I’m going to make this really short so you can attend to your priorities.”

 

“Thanks. I’m shitting myself to read what he wrote.”

 

Eleanor grins. “Well, so. You know your my best friend, have been since we were like 4. I was worried that because I moved back to England we might fall out of touch, but it hasn’t been like that at all. I can still tell you everything. Thank you for always being here for me, especially when Josh dumped me in seventh grade. God, remember when Josh dumped me in seventh grade? Devastating.”

 

Louis laughs. “Yeah, I remember that.”

 

“Seventh grade heartbreak, the worst of them all,” she jokes. “Anyways, yeah. We have so many great memories together, even the weird ones are good ones to me. Remember when I had a crush on you in third grade? Weird memory, but it was funny.”

 

“I forgot about that!” Louis exclaims. “Little did you know I was secretly crushing on Hailey from 4th grade. That was back in my straight phase.”

 

Eleanor laughs. “Ah, Hailey. I remember when you had a crush on her.” She pauses. “I also remember when you later had a crush on her brother Jason, he was hot. Or whatever 10 year olds think is hot. Anyways, I’m getting off topic again. I wish you the best of luck with dating Harry, I honestly think you’d be a great couple. And regardless of what you say, he isn’t out of your league and you might even be out of his. I’m going to go now because you have a Harry to reply to, but I need you to know how much you mean to me. I know you don’t always believe people when they say these things to you, but you really mean the world to me. You’re my best friend.”

 

“Thanks,” Louis says quietly.

 

“I’m going to go now though. Happy birthday!! Give your mom a big ol’ kiss for me.” She waves and hangs up.

 

Louis sits quietly for a moment, thinking. He can’t believe Eleanor would say he’s out of Harry’s league; he obviously isn’t. He shakes it off, deciding that she’d just said that to boost his confidence, and opens Harry’s text. 

 

It starts with a simple ‘happy birthday babe!!’ 

 

Louis blinks. Apparently the babe is still a thing. He continues reading.

 

‘Louis, I know we’ve only been talking for a couple weeks, but you’ve already become one of my best friends. Although the whole mind reading thing was a kind of strange way to start a friendship, I’m really glad it happened. It’s been less than a month but I already can’t imagine my life without you.

One thing, sometimes you say some things that make me really sad. You’re one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, but whenever I tell you that you never seem to believe me. You’re also super funny, cute, and although you may not be the best football player, you can draw a hell of a lot better than I can. I tell you all these things but you somehow think I’m joking. Also when I joked about having a crush on you, you said you didn’t believe me because I’m “out of your league”. Louis, that is really untrue. If anything, you’re way out of my league. It really does make me sad when you don’t believe all the good things people say about you. You’re really important to me and I’m going to make sure that you know it.

This text is already way too long, so I’m going to cut to the chase. I wish you the best of birthdays, and I hope to see you after christmas to give you my present. Even though our telepathic link seems to be wearing off, I want to keep being friends with you.

Love you xx.’

 

Louis stares at the text for the next two minutes, rereading it so often he almost has it committed to memory. Also, what? Why does the general theme of birthday texts seem to be people telling him that he’s out of Harry’s league? He really doesn’t understand what people see in him to make them think that.

 

He briefly wonders what Harry got him for his birthday, but pushes the thought to the back of his mind. He doesn’t want to get his hopes up just in case he was kidding about that. Instead, he focuses on the fact that Harry had called him his best friend. Harry, the boy he’s been crushing on for almost two years now, considers him to be one of his best friends. Although it’s created some awkward situations for him, he silently thanks whatever gave him and Harry the telepathic link. Without it, Louis might never have even started talking to Harry. He also thanks whatever possessed Harry to write the words ‘love you’ at the bottom of his text. Those two words will be the source of Louis' happiness for the next three days.

 

His phone buzzes again, this time with a text from Niall. Feeling overwhelmed, Louis decides to read it later and throws his phone on the couch.

 

***

 

An hour pases before Louis' comes rushing downstairs. “Louis?” she calls out. “Where are you?”

 

“Living room,” he calls back.

 

There are a few thumps and the distinctive sound of something falling on the floor before Louis' mom appears in the doorway, holding up a small stack of presents. “Your grandparents are stopping by later today, figured you’d want to open your presents before they get here.”

 

He smiles. “Yeah, thanks.” Opening presents in front of relatives is always extremely awkward. He shifts to the end of the couch as his mom sets down the gifts next to him.

 

“Start with this one,” she says, pointing a middle size package with a disney princess bow.

 

“Nice bow choice,” Louis chuckles as he tears into the gift. Inside there is a phone case, which he turns over to find a picture of the hogwarts insignia on it. “Thanks mom,” he says, grinning like a complete fanboy. He loves Harry Potter, and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t have a slight crush on Daniel Radcliffe growing up. Not that his mom needs to know that particular detail. He sets the case to the side and dives in for the next present, a small red envelope. In it he finds a gift card to the coffee shop he always goes to with Harry. He makes a mental note to invite him one day.

 

The next gift is slightly larger, bearing resemblance to presents that often contain books or movies. He tentatively unwraps it and, sure enough, a book titled ‘Simon vs the Homosapiens Agenda’ falls out. He grins up at his mom. “I’ve read this book about a million times, mom. I love it, how’d you know?”

 

His mom shrugs sheepishly. “It was on sale at walmart, to be honest.”

 

“That’s fair.”

 

There’s only two presents left after that. One more book, this one titled ‘Blart: the boy who didn’t want to save the world’, and a friendship necklace pack, with two necklaces that form one heart. Louis' mom quickly explains that it came free with the book and she gave it as a gag. “I know you didn’t get much today,” she says, “but you’re going to get bigger presents tomorrow, because it’s chri-.”

 

“Christmas,” Louis interrupts. “I know, this happens every year.” He stands up and walks around the couch to give his mom a hug. “Thank you for the birthday gifts, though,” he mumbles into her shoulder.

 

“Of course.”

  
  


The rest of the day passes uneventfully, until 3pm rolls around. Louis lounges around the house for the better part of the morning, reading his new books and waiting for his grandparents to show up. When they do it’s a whole affair; they have their own small stack of presents and his grandma seems to be carrying what must be 4 pounds of cake in her arms. He greets them before taking the container from her and brings it to the kitchen as his mom carries their bags to the spare bedroom. After he has set down the luggage, briefly stopping to straighten the pillows, he returns to the front hallway to find his mom telling his grandparents the story of how he’d came out.

 

“Mom,” he harshly whispers. “What are you doing?”

 

“Oh, relax honey, they had a bet going.” She frowns. “Don’t know why, though.”

 

His grandma rolls her eyes. “It was a one-sided bet,” she explains. “Your grandfather just wanted to make 20$ off me.”

 

“Aha…” Louis doesn’t know how to feel about this. He decides to change the subject. “So, how’s your seniors club?” His grandparents had just joined a club for the elderly, where they do things like knit and play bingo.

 

“Oh it’s lovely honey!” His grandma claps her hands together in excitement. “Just last week we started playing solitaire!”

 

“Ah, the instructor’s really keeping things alive in there,” Louis jokes.

 

“Ah, shut up,” his grandpa says, batting him on the arm.

  
  


They hang around the living for for another half hour or so, his grandparents making small talk about Louis' friends and how school is going. He can only take so many questions about his personal life before he gets annoyed, so Louis is glad to hear the doorbell ring, which gives him an excuse to leave. 

 

He opens the front door on the third ring, startling Harry, who quickly withdraws his hand from the doorbell.

 

“Uh, hey,” Harry says sheepishly. He awkwardly holds up a terribly wrapped present. “Happy birthday. I brought you a little something,” he says lightheartedly.

 

“You’re a creep, constantly showing up like this,” Louis jokes.

 

“Do you want the present or not?” Harry raises his eyebrows.

 

“Yeah, sure. Gimme.”

 

Harry gives him a lopsided grin and hands him the badly wrapped present. It’s surprisingly soft, for the most part, except for a small square part on top that is harder than the rest. Louis guesses it’s a book. He pinches the corner on the wrapping and tugs, easily undoing the packaging. What falls out is not entirely what he’d expected. It’s a small picture frame, which he turns over to see a picture of Harry when he was five years old.

 

“You always look at that picture when you come over, figured I may as well give it to you.”

 

Louis smiles. “I love it, thank you.” He decides not to mention that his first thought when he saw it was to hang on his wall. He tears the wrapping on his present a little more, revealing a maroon football sweatshirt with the number 11 on it. “Why a football sweatshirt? You know I can’t play football.”

 

Harry laughs. “That’s a sweatshirt from the school team. You can wear it next time you come to training.”

 

“There won’t be a next time,” Louis says, amusedly rolling his eyes. “Why the number 11 though?”

 

“That’s my number on the team. I would’ve gotten you a different number, but I could only order from the numbers of players on the team, that okay with you?”

 

“Um, yeah.” That’s more than okay. The thought of walking around with Harry’s football number on his sweater is a great thought to Louis. Even better when he realises that some people might think he’s actually wearing Harry’s sweater. “Your presents are perfect, thank you.”

 

“Speaking of,” Harry says. “What did you get for your birthday?”

 

“Oh, um.” Louis scratches his nose. “Two books, a phone case, a gift card, and one of those two part best friend necklaces.”

 

“Wait, a best friend necklace? Seriously?” Harry laughs. “You should give me the other half.”

 

“I mean, if you want it.”

 

“Hell yeah.”

 

“Feel free to come in” Louis offers. “the necklace is upstairs.”

 

Louis is already wearing his half on the necklace. He absentmindedly plays with it as they go upstairs. Harry is a couple meters behind him, he had to take a second to hang his coat on the rack in the hallway. Louis' can hear his grandparents chatter cease, which means they will soon come looking for him. He groans, introducing Harry to his grandparents is definitely not something he ever thought he'd have to do. Especially on his birthday. 

 

When they get to Louis' room Harry lets himself fall dramatically onto the bean bag. Louis crosses over to his desk to grab the second half of the necklace. He sets down Harry's presents before turning back to him and handing over the necklace.

 

Harry takes the necklace from him and awkwardly fumbles with it before clasping it around his neck, tucking it beneath his shirt. “Does it make me look fabulous?”

 

“I mean- yeah,” Louis splutters. “You look fabulous with anything.”

 

Smooth.

 

Harry laughs, beginning to play with the necklace the way Louis had on the way upstairs. “So, I guess we're best friends now,” he jokes. “Hope Eleanor won't be too jealous.”

 

“Oh, she's gonna kill you.”

 

“Oh, is it a competition?” Harry pretends to look tough, cracking his knuckles and jotting out his jaw. “Tell her I'm coming for her. You're mine.”

 

Louis chokes a little. He tries to suppress the noise that comes from the back of his throat at Harry's words, but it ends up sounding like he’d thrown up a bit in his mouth. Not appealing. “When are you going home?” He asked Harry to divert his attention away from his weird choking noises.

 

Harry feigned a gasp. “Are you kicking me out? How harsh.”

 

“Oh no,” Louis backtracked. “I didn’t mean it like that! It’s just that it’s christmas eve, shouldn’t you be with your family?”

 

“Yeah, I need to get home soon.”

 

***

 

At 7 o’clock, the family sits down to have dinner. Louis' mom had never been a fan of big fancy dinners, so their Christmas meal would just be like any other. She had offered Harry a place at the table, but he’d said he needed to get back to his family. Louis spent the rest of the day up in his room waiting to be called to dinner.

 

Finally it was time. Louis makes his way downstairs to help set the table. “What are we having?” He asks as he helps his mom bring the silverware to the dining room. “Something smelled good in the slow cooker earlier.”

 

“Oh yes, your grandparent brought some stew with them. Are you coming, Robert?” His mom shouts towards the kitchen.

 

“One second,” his grandfather calls back. Louis waits with his mother at the dinner table as his Grandpa adds the finishing touches to the soup. There are a couple small scuffling noises, and then he enters the dining room, carrying the steaming pot of stew with a large ladle. “Say hello to Stewie.” He grins; he had obviously been waiting for a while to make the joke.

 

“Oh god, Robert.”

 

“Stewie?” Louis rolls his eyes. “How long did it take you to come up with that one?”

 

“Shush, let’s eat.” His grandfather sets the pot down on the table and takes a seat. “Oh, I forgot the cheese grater in the kitchen,” he realises, dramatically facepalming. “Louis, would you grab it for me?”

 

“Ugh, do I have to?” Louis complains.

 

“Yes, you ungrateful child,” his grandfather jokes. Suddenly his face lights up. “I just made a pun without even trying! I’m so cool.”

 

“We’re all so proud.”

  
  


Dinner passed quickly. The stew was a bit over salted, but they balanced it out with bread, so it tasted fine in the end. Louis' mother told a story from her work that day, (a coworker had brought her daughter in- apparently she thought it was take your kid to work day), while his grandpa nodded alone, pretending to enjoy his over salted stew.

 

“Is there going to be dessert?” Louis asks, leaning back in his chair.

 

“Well, I was going to suggest some bowls of cereal, but someone ate them all while we were at work.” He looked pointedly at Louis, who raised his arms in defence. “One might even say there’s a cereal killer on the loose.”

 

“Grandpa, no.”

 

***

 

Later in the night, when his mom is driving her parents to their hotel, Louis kicks back and tries to read a book titled ‘don’t get caught’. He’d gotten it over around a year ago, probably for his 14th birthday, and still hasn’t gotten around to reading it. He can’t make it past the first 2 pages. He cracks the book open and begins reading.

  
  


Louis snaps the book shut. Yet again, the first page throws him off too much: Louis decides to never read the book. It’s too confusing. Too incomplete.

 

He texts Niall instead. 

 

“Hey, when do you get back?”

 

“Only when school starts, sorry Li.”

 

*

 

Before long break is coming to an end and it’s nearly time to go back to school. Louis and Niall briefly fell out of touch over Christmas, but began speaking again regularly towards the end of the break. Eleanor texted him occasionally, but she was otherwise too caught up with her family to talk much. The one person Louis was especially looking forward to seeing was Harry. It felt like it had been ages since he’d seen him, even though it had only been a week since his birthday. Surprisingly, Harry had texted him every single day, whether it be just to say good morning or to send Louis pictures of himself.

 

That was another thing. Harry kept sending Louis pictures of himself, sometimes with his relatives and sometimes by himself in his room. Louis saved every single one, even briefly considering setting one as his phone wallpaper before reminding himself that that would be super creepy.

 

He was looking forward to school starting again. Seeing Niall, seeing Harry? School was going to be great.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO IT'S BEEN SO LONG I KNOW. The project that got in the way of my writing is nearly done, this chapter is everything I wrote over the course of of. I wrote the beginning like three months ago and the end just last week so this chapter might be all over the place. It's been so long I don't even remember what's in it. After this there's only a few chapter left, so not much longer!! I may go back through and edit this later. It's about 1k words shorter than usual chapters and the ending is quite abrupt, so watch out for a repost.
> 
> I wrote a book for my project. I will probably be posting the book here, mayyyybe someone'll want to check out what I've been working on all these months?

**Author's Note:**

> I am actually writing this as a book with original characters, but decided to post it as a Larry fanfic. My characters are called Liam (Louis) and Scott (Harry). So if you see scott or liam in the story, please let me know and I will change it to the respective names!  
> Anyways, seeing as this is being written with original characters, there are things in here that don't hold true to the people in this story. I'm fully aware that my descriptions of Harry and Louis are wrong and simultaneously don't really care.


End file.
